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Why do I get so much spam and unwanted email in my inbox? And how can I get rid of it?

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kayleen-manwaring-8735">Kayleen Manwaring</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-sydney-1414">UNSW Sydney</a></em></p> <p>Spam might not have brought an end to the internet or email, as some dire predictions <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-spam-could-destroy-the-internet/">in the early 2000s</a> claimed it could – but it’s still a massive pain.</p> <p>Despite all the spam being removed by spam-filtering technologies, most people still receive spam every day. How do these messages end up flooding our inboxes? And are there any legal consequences for the senders?</p> <h2>What is spam?</h2> <p>The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) noted in 2004 “there does not appear to be a widely agreed and workable definition for spam” across jurisdictions – and this remains true today.</p> <p>That said, “spam” generally <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/232784860063.pdf?expires=1693541947&amp;id=id&amp;accname=ocid177499&amp;checksum=D0C5BDAC49951DF353618B8E38483253">refers to</a> unsolicited electronic messages. These are often sent in bulk and frequently advertise goods or services. It also includes scamming and phishing messages, according to the OECD.</p> <p>Most people think of spam in the form of emails or SMS messages. However, what we now call spam actually predates the internet. In 1854, a spam telegram was sent to British politicians advertising the opening hours of dentists who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/09/why-spammers-are-winning-junk-mail">sold tooth-whitening powder</a>.</p> <p>The first spam email came more than 100 years later. It was reportedly sent to 600 people on May 3 1978 <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080628205216/http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-spam11may11001420,1,5168218,full.story">through ARPAnet</a> – a precursor to the modern internet.</p> <p>As for how much spam is out there, the figures vary, possibly due to the various <a href="https://www.spamhaus.org/consumer/definition/">definitions of “spam”</a>. One source reports the average number of spam emails sent daily in 2022 was about <a href="https://dataprot.net/statistics/spam-statistics/">122.33 billion</a> (which would mean more than half of all emails were spam). As for text messages, another source reports a daily average of 1.6 billion <a href="https://thesmallbusinessblog.net/spam-text-statistics/">spam texts</a>.</p> <h2>Where do spammers get my details?</h2> <p>Each time you enter your email address or phone number into an e-commerce website, you may be handing it to spammers.</p> <p>But sometimes you may even receive spam from entities you don’t recognise. That’s because businesses will often transfer customers’ contact information to related companies, or sell their data to third parties such as data brokers.</p> <p>Australia’s Privacy Act 1988 somewhat limits the transfer of personal information to third parties. However, these laws <a href="https://theconversation.com/accc-says-consumers-need-more-choices-about-what-online-marketplaces-are-doing-with-their-data-182134">are weak</a> – and <a href="http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/unsworks_75600">weakly enforced</a>.</p> <p>Some entities also use “address-harvesting” software to search the internet for electronic addresses that are captured in a database. The collector then uses these addresses directly, or sells them to others looking to send spam.</p> <p>Many jurisdictions (including <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sa200366/s19.html">Australia</a>) prohibit these harvesting activities, but they are still <a href="https://www.projecthoneypot.org/statistics.php">common</a>.</p> <h2>Is spamming against the law?</h2> <p>Australia has had legislation regulating spam messaging since 2003. But the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016C00614">Spam Act</a> surprisingly does not define the word “spam”. It tackles spam by prohibiting the sending of <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sa200366/s15.html">unsolicited commercial electronic messages</a> containing offers, ads or other promotions of goods, services or land.</p> <p>However, if the receiver <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sa200366/sch2.html">consented</a> to these types of messages, the prohibition does not apply. When you buy goods or services from a company, you will often see a request to click on a “yes” button to receive marketing promotions. Doing so means you have consented.</p> <p>On the other hand, if your phone or inbox are hit by commercial messages you haven’t agreed to receive, that is a breach of the <a href="https://austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sa200366/">Spam Act</a> by the sender. If you originally signed up to receive the messages, but then unsubscribed and the messages kept coming after <a href="https://austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sa200366/sch2.html">five business days</a>, that is also illegal. Senders must also include a <a href="https://austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sa200366/s18.html">functioning unsubscribe facility</a> in every commercial message they send.</p> <p>Spammers can be penalised for breaches of the Spam Act. In the past few months alone, <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/articles/2023-06/commonwealth-bank-penalised-355-million-spam-breaches">Commonwealth Bank</a>, <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/articles/2023-08/doordash-penalised-2-million-spam-breaches">DoorDash</a> and <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/articles/2023-06/mycar-tyre-auto-penalised-1m-spam-breaches">mycar Tyre &amp; Auto</a> were fined more than A$6 million in total for breaches.</p> <p>However, most spam comes from outside Australia where the laws aren’t the same. In the United States spam is legal under the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business">CAN-SPAM Act</a> until you opt out. Unsurprisingly, the US <a href="https://talosintelligence.com/reputation_center/email_rep#spam-country-senders">tops the list</a> of countries where the most spam originates.</p> <p>Although spam sent to Australia from overseas <a href="https://austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sa200366/s16.html">can still breach</a> the Spam Act – and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) co-operates with overseas regulators – overseas enforcement actions are difficult and expensive, especially if the spammer has disguised their true identity and location.</p> <p>It’s worth noting that messages from political parties, registered charities and government bodies aren’t prohibited – nor are messages from educational institutions to students and former students. So while you might consider these messages as “spam”, they can legally be <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sa200366/sch1.html">sent freely without consent</a>. Factual messages (without marketing content) from businesses are also legal as long as they include accurate sender details and contact information.</p> <p>Moreover, the Spam Act generally only covers spam sent via email, SMS/MMS or instant messaging services, such as WhatsApp. Voice calls and faxes aren’t covered (although you can use the <a href="https://www.donotcall.gov.au/">Do Not Call Register</a> to block some commercial calls).</p> <h2>Staying safe from spam (and cyberattacks)</h2> <p>Spam isn’t only annoying, it can also be dangerous. Spam messages can contain indecent images, scams and <a href="https://www.cyber.gov.au/learn-basics/explore-basics/watch-out-threats/phishing-emails-and-texts">phishing attempts</a>. Some have <a href="https://www.cyber.gov.au/threats/types-threats/malware">malware</a> (malicious software) designed to break into computer networks and cause harm, such as by stealing data or money, or shutting down systems.</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.cyber.gov.au/protect-yourself/securing-your-email/email-security/protect-yourself-malicious-email">Australian Cyber Security Centre</a> and <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/dealing-with-spam">ACMA</a> provide useful tips for reducing the spam you get and your risk of being hit by cyberattacks. They suggest to:</p> <ol> <li> <p>use a spam filter and block spammers – email and telecommunications providers often supply useful tools as part of their services</p> </li> <li> <p>unsubscribe from any emails you no longer want to receive – even if you originally agreed to receive them</p> </li> <li> <p>remove as much of your contact details from websites as you can and always restrict the sharing of your personal information (such as name, birth date, email address and mobile number) when you can – beware of pre-ticked boxes asking for your consent to receive marketing emails</p> </li> <li> <p>install cybersecurity updates for your devices and software as you get them</p> </li> <li> <p>always think twice about opening emails or clicking on links, especially for messages promising rewards or asking for personal information – if it looks too good to be true, it probably is</p> </li> <li> <p>use <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-multi-factor-authentication-and-how-should-i-be-using-it-191591">multi-factor authentication</a> to access online services so even if a scam compromises your login details, it will still be difficult for hackers to break into your accounts</p> </li> <li> <p>report spam to your email and telecommunications providers, and to <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/dealing-with-spam#complain-or-forward-spam-to-the-acma">ACMA</a>. <!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208665/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> </li> </ol> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kayleen-manwaring-8735"><em>Kayleen Manwaring</em></a><em>, Senior Research Fellow, UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law &amp; Innovation and Senior Lecturer, School of Private &amp; Commercial Law, UNSW Law &amp; Justice, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-sydney-1414">UNSW Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-i-get-so-much-spam-and-unwanted-email-in-my-inbox-and-how-can-i-get-rid-of-it-208665">original article</a>.</em></p>

Technology

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How to declutter your inbox

<p><strong><em>Lisa Du is director of <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.readytechgo.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ReadyTechGo</a></span>, a service that helps people gain the confidence and skills to embrace modern technology.</em></strong></p> <p>Is your inbox looking a little cluttered? Are you finding it hard to find past emails amongst the sheer mess that it already houses? There’s a solution, of course!</p> <p><strong>Delete, delete, delete</strong></p> <p>The first thing you should do? Delete stuff. Delete as much as you possibly can. And be ruthless about it. Don’t delete anything that you might need, obviously, like important receipts, password information, or reminders. But something like a notification from Facebook telling you that it’s someone’s birthday...yeah, that can go.</p> <p>For someone who doesn’t delete their emails, this will clear up your inbox considerably. In fact, it might take you a long while if you’re the type to leave hundreds of emails unread in your inbox. And for those of you who have thousands of unread emails, well... this process will be a lot more impractical for you.</p> <p><strong>File away your emails</strong></p> <p>Following this act of ruthless deletion, if your inbox is still looking a little too messy for your liking, there’s something else you can do: categorise. What this essentially means is that you can create different folders or labels for your emails, and then file your emails under each of these different folders accordingly. For instance, if you’ve been doing a little online shopping, and getting lots of confirmation emails for your orders, you might want to keep them in a folder called, “Shopping Receipts”.</p> <p>Though there are a lot of email hosts out there, the steps are generally the same. Here’s how to do it on a couple of sites.</p> <p><strong>On Gmail.com: </strong></p> <ol start="1"> <li>Go to Gmail on your browser and login to your account</li> <li>You’ll see a sidebar on the left-hand side of your screen with different email categories, including “Inbox” and “Sent Mail”. Click on “More”</li> <li>This will expand the sidebar selection. You’ll see a section that says “Categories”. Click on “Create new label” under this section</li> <li>In the dialog box that pops up, type in the name of your label</li> <li>Now, you’ll see your new label under the left-hand sidebar</li> <li>Simply click and drag your emails into this label to file them</li> <li>From now on, when you want to find emails under this label, you’ll need to click into the label to see them</li> </ol> <p><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="../media/29156/gmail-declutter-inbox_499x445.jpg" alt="Gmail Declutter Inbox" width="499" height="445" /></p> <p><strong>On Outlook.com</strong></p> <ol> <li>Login to your email account on Outlook.com</li> <li>You’ll see a sidebar on the left-hand side of your screen titled "Folders" with different email categories, including “Inbox” and “Junk Email”. Hover your mouse over this title</li> <li>Beside the word “Folders”, you’ll see a plus sign. Click on this plus sign to create a new folder</li> <li>At the bottom of your sidebar, you’ll see a new entry for a new folder. Type the name of your new folder into this entry and press ENTER on your keyboard</li> <li>This entry will now be a new folder under the left-hand sidebar</li> <li>Simply click and drag your emails into this folder to file them</li> <li>From now on, when you want to find emails under this folder, you’ll need to click into the folder to see them.</li> </ol> <p><strong><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="../media/29155/outlook-delclutter-inbox.jpg" alt="Outlook Delclutter Inbox" width="449" height="168" /></strong></p> <p>Being able to file your emails under different categories will not only clear up your inbox, but it will also introduce some order to your emails. Finding certain emails will be easier, your inbox will be less of an eyesore, and important emails will be less likely to become lost amongst a sea of spam.</p> <p><em>For more information about ReadyTechGo, visit their <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.readytechgo.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website here.</a></span></strong></em></p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Technology

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The fake bill scam that could already be in your inbox

<p>Just when you thought it was safe to cehck your emails! Seniors have been warned to be on high alert regarding an email scam that has targeted tens of thousands of Australians.</p> <p>The well-crafted emails feature Origin Energy branding including the energy provider’s official logo, and claim the recipients owe the company varying amounts.</p> <p><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNHWWagga%2Fposts%2F310021259432276%3A0&amp;width=500" width="500" height="650" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe></p> <p>The emails contain malicious software which spy on the victim’s internet activity and steal the recipient’s personal details.</p> <p>While the email looks legitimate, there are a couple of little details that give it away including a 1300 customer-service number registered to a recycling business in Victoria, and the sender domain name “originenergysolar.net” which was registered in China only a few days ago. </p> <p>MailGuard CEO Craig McDonald told <a href="http://www.smh.com.au" target="_blank"><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Fairfax Media</strong></span></em></a> these hoaxes were on the rise.</p> <p>"Increasingly we're seeing cyber criminals carrying out targeted attacks by impersonating well-known and trusted entities, such as Australia Post, Telstra, FedEx, Google and the Australian Government's myGov website," he said.</p> <p>"This is because these scammers realise that by impersonating brands people deal with daily, there's a good chance people will click the link to find out about a parcel they've apparently ordered, or to find out how much money they supposedly owe."</p> <p>Have you ever fallen victim to an internet scam?</p>

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