I’ve been running Avast for a few years now and about a week ago I started getting a whole bunch of spam - about 50 a day. The scanner picks up nothing and I’ve not installed any new applications.
Any thoughts?
Spam messages themselves are (usually) not carrying an infection.
What causes them, usually, is the posting of an internet address in a public place, or a site with a poor or zero privacy agreement, or also possibly a friend who has your address in their address bock, and their computer has become infected with some kind of spambot.
It happens to a lot of folk sooner or later.
There are good protocols to help reduce the risk, including not forwarding those “fwd…” messages (that everyone does 'coz they are often funny) without sanitizing all the “CC’s” first. (By the time you’ve got it, it might have been through more than a thousand other computers and been forwarded on, and may end up in the hands of a spammer, complete with a huge list of email addresses. Game over.
-Forward messages using the “BCC” setting, not the “send to” or “CC”.
-Strongly encourage friends to do the same.
-Do not post your email address publicly. (Lot of people do this.)
-Never reply to one of these spam mails. Delete them.
-Have two or three email addresses. A throwaway one, for high risk type web interactions, another for lesser risk interactions, and your home one, which you only reveal to trusted friends, family, the bank etc.
Google this. There are heaps of tips and tricks to help minimize the risk.
If it doesn’t stop, the only real fix is to contact your ISP and try and get a new email address.
Thanks guys…sad but true…probably got picked up in the ether somewheres…funny though, I’m the guy who never forwards my friends email addresses! Wish me luck!