What Is Spam?
Everyone who has ever handled an email must have encountered the term spam and although many know that they are messages that...
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Everyone who has ever handled an email must have come across the term spam and although many know that they are messages that arrive unsolicited and can be annoying, few really know what spam is, why we receive this type of email or how to avoid them.
Below we explain everything related to spam, whether you are a victim of it or you want to know if your email or website is considered spam.
What does it mean and what is spam?
The word spam originated in the Second World War, at this time soldiers received canned food sent by their families, among them a canned meat called spam, which after a time was considered annoying, repetitive and even inevitable.
Based on this, in the 70s the term began to become popular within computer language to describe mass communication through email without being requested, although today we can find spam through different digital media.
The first spam campaign was identified in 1978 where the inboxes of online users of ARPANET (predecessor of the Internet) received a company’s advertising campaign without requesting it, however, upon receiving so much criticism, this marketing method was discarded.
In simple terms, spam is considered any type of mass communication that is sent without a prior request, although the most common spam occurs in emails, today it is possible to receive spam through SMS text messages, social networks, voice messages, among others. Spam is generally an illegal action.
Can I spam from your servers?
No, we manage one of the best security systems in terms of hosting, in such a way that we guarantee the satisfaction of our clients by preventing the entry and exit of Spam from our servers. If you wish to send mass emails, you must follow the methods that are currently available for this purpose.
Why is spam?
The main objective of spam is to bring advertising content to a greater number of people, previously and even currently it is used by some companies as a marketing technique. However, after receiving so many negative responses, it is a practice that has been disappearing.
This does not mean that spam is no longer used, because in reality today **it is widely used with malicious intentions, **viruses and more are distributed through email chains, with which the aim is to either steal information from the computers that are accessed or generate any other type of problems that affect the victims.
Can my website be on a spam list?
Of course, on the web it is possible to find a public list where the different IP addresses and websites that have carried out spam are indicated, this in order to make known all the servers, emails and domains that carry out this activity.
Worse still, there are many people who have developed their projects and are unaware that they have been classified as spam, some others know it but do not know the reason why they have been marked this way since they have never produced spam.
When this happens, it is usually due to the server you are using to develop your projects. If you have not purchased your own server, then you are sharing IP with others. If any of these users practice this activity, unfortunately, your projects may be affected.
Fortunately, at mihosting it can’t happen to you since we monitor all our servers. If any of them are sending spam, **we correct it immediately, avoiding any type of blocking. **
How can I know if my email is considered spam?
If you believe that for some reason your email has been classified as spam, you can corroborate this in different ways, you will need your IP address on hand to get answers:
On the web there are some platforms designed to indicate the IPs that send spam, you will only have to consult a couple of them to find out if your email is spam or not. These are:
- https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx
- https://www.dnsqueries.com/es/mi_ip_esta_en_lista_negra.php
- https://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=
Another option to know if your email is spam is through a notification, in some cases spam blacklist service providers take time to notify those included in their list of its presence as a spam generator. In other cases, it is the mail service providers who are responsible for giving the notice. In any case we recommend you check your inbox if your provider or any other security company has sent you a notification.
How can I stop people from sending me spam?
There are some measures you can take that will help reduce the chances of receiving spam, to do this you should start by avoiding publishing your email on web pages and on public service sites. That is, you have used your personal information responsibly.
Another option is to have a main account for important transactions and **a secondary account **to receive newsletters and subscribe to the pages you want.
How can I block spam in my email?
If you have been receiving spam and want to avoid this type of messages, nowadays it is very easy to prevent these emails from coming back, whether you use Gmail or Outlook (the most popular email services), you simply have to select the message in question and look for the mark as spam option, this way you will not receive any more messages from that sender.
I am receiving many spam emails, what can I do?
To begin with you must avoid continuing to share your email on any platform, some of these are intended to collect information for the mass sending of emails, finally to stop receiving these emails you must block the address that sends you this unsolicited information, for this you must mark the emails as spam, new emails will automatically be sent to this section.
Can I send mass mail?
Generally, providers such as Gmail and Outlook are intended for sending personal emails, that is, with a small number of contacts, however if you want to send a mass email through these means you must download some add-ons for either Gmail or Outlook. However, the number of emails you can send will continue to be limited.
It is most recommended that you choose to purchase a professional hosting service. At miHosting we can help you and you can also review our guide to send mail to a distribution list (mass mail).