Further to the discussion that was started on the email group, I thought I'd post some thoughts here about spam emails and scams so you can all let each other know your methods for dealing with it.
Scams:
These are usually fairly easy to spot, here are a few rules I apply to check whether an email is legit or not.
1. It's not addressed to you personally ie. it starts 'dear customer' or 'dear client'
2. Bad spelling and/or grammar
3. Promises of large amounts of money or expensive prizes
4. Asks for money
5. Has an attachment
6. From a company you don't deal with
7. Asks you to verify your account by using a link to log in
8. Hovering over email links show they don't go to the correct place or are spelt worng
9. A friend sends a weird link without explanation
Now this list is not exhaustive, but to be honest dodgy emails are usually easy to spot. Never reply or unsubscribe from them as you just confirm that your email address is active. If you're not sure and the email asks you to click on a link, go to the website directly instead (or via google) so you can be sure you are on the legitimate site.
Getting your email password hacked is something that has happened to many of us and the first we know of it is someone asking if we sent them a dodgy looking link! If you think your email has been compromised change your password asap (see my previous blog post on creating secure passwords) and email your contacts asking them to ignore dodgy emails from you.
I have a bogus contact in my contacts list that will fail if anyone sends an email to it. That way if my account gets hacked and they send emails to all my contacts (which is the usual MO) I will see a bounceback message and know my account was compromised almost straight away.
Spam:
Spam is an unfortunate side effect of comping online, most sites ask us to register or sign up to their newsletter and so we get many, many emails every day. Here's how I deal with it.
I have a separate email accounts for different things. I have a personal account that everything important goes to, a LCC account for club use only, a comping account that I sign up to sites with and a everything else account. Now this may sound complicated to deal with, but in the days of tablets and smartphones I can see all my accounts in one place.
I set up filters to deal with the most usual spam, looking for words such as; casino, loan, payday, etc and these go straight to the trash folder. Other emails I mark as spam and then they go into the spam folder for me to check and delete at a later date.
Occasionally I will go through my emails and unsubscribe from some that don't often have comps or that are just sent too often. You can do this manually or there are sites such as unroll.me which will unsubscribe for you and roll up any remaining emails into one digest type email.
However, on the plus side some of these emails have extra 'hidden' comps in th
Please add your methods of dealing with spam and scams in the comments.
Scams:
These are usually fairly easy to spot, here are a few rules I apply to check whether an email is legit or not.
1. It's not addressed to you personally ie. it starts 'dear customer' or 'dear client'
2. Bad spelling and/or grammar
3. Promises of large amounts of money or expensive prizes
4. Asks for money
5. Has an attachment
6. From a company you don't deal with
7. Asks you to verify your account by using a link to log in
8. Hovering over email links show they don't go to the correct place or are spelt worng
9. A friend sends a weird link without explanation
Now this list is not exhaustive, but to be honest dodgy emails are usually easy to spot. Never reply or unsubscribe from them as you just confirm that your email address is active. If you're not sure and the email asks you to click on a link, go to the website directly instead (or via google) so you can be sure you are on the legitimate site.
Getting your email password hacked is something that has happened to many of us and the first we know of it is someone asking if we sent them a dodgy looking link! If you think your email has been compromised change your password asap (see my previous blog post on creating secure passwords) and email your contacts asking them to ignore dodgy emails from you.
I have a bogus contact in my contacts list that will fail if anyone sends an email to it. That way if my account gets hacked and they send emails to all my contacts (which is the usual MO) I will see a bounceback message and know my account was compromised almost straight away.
Spam:
Spam is an unfortunate side effect of comping online, most sites ask us to register or sign up to their newsletter and so we get many, many emails every day. Here's how I deal with it.
I have a separate email accounts for different things. I have a personal account that everything important goes to, a LCC account for club use only, a comping account that I sign up to sites with and a everything else account. Now this may sound complicated to deal with, but in the days of tablets and smartphones I can see all my accounts in one place.
I set up filters to deal with the most usual spam, looking for words such as; casino, loan, payday, etc and these go straight to the trash folder. Other emails I mark as spam and then they go into the spam folder for me to check and delete at a later date.
Occasionally I will go through my emails and unsubscribe from some that don't often have comps or that are just sent too often. You can do this manually or there are sites such as unroll.me which will unsubscribe for you and roll up any remaining emails into one digest type email.
However, on the plus side some of these emails have extra 'hidden' comps in th
Please add your methods of dealing with spam and scams in the comments.
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