Typically, spam e-mails appear relatively harmless and there isn't always a malicious intent to damage users personally or financially. E-mails like these are often intended "merely" to inform recipients about and flood them with offers. You should still be careful, though! As soon as you notice you are being flooded with no end of adverts, you should mark the e-mails as spam. However, the situation becomes critical when criminals are sending e-mails to you with the aim of stealing your identity, committing financial fraud or stealing data. Continue reading to learn how to recognise spam e-mails and what you can do if you are affected.

Spam e-mails - use caution

You should ask yourself three questions before you open an e-mail. Watch the video to find out what they are:

Spam is a collective term that covers all forms of unwanted e-mails sent en masse, including electronic chain letters or advertising posts on social networks. Spam is sometimes also called junk mail. In the age of the Internet, the term spam has become a synonym for any unwanted flood of e-mails.

Originally, spam meant something entirely different:

The American company Hormel shorted "spiced ham" to "spam" for use as its brand name for mass-produced tinned meat. During the second World War, "spam" was one of few meat products that was easily available despite rationing. In 1970, this spiced ham appeared on the TV show of the British comedy group Monty Python: the two-minute TV sketch sings or says the word spam no fewer than 132 times. The sheer repetition of it drowns out every other conversation and fills your ears: the perfect analogy to a clogged inbox.

Most common forms of spam

• Scam: also known as advance-fee fraud (AFF). Mails like this often promise a get-rich-quick scheme. But first the mail asks you to pay a relatively small amount, for legal fees, for example.
• Hoax: a false report or prank, often combined with a request to forward the e-mail to additional recipients.
• Phishing: this variant of spam is used by cyber criminals to persuade you to share personal information, like the access data to your bank account.

See also our examples of spam mails.

How did spammers get my address?

Spammers may obtain your e-mail in a wide variety of ways. They may acquire them automatically using harvesters, or small programs that systematically search websites and "scrape" all the e-mail addresses they find, for example from guest book entries or the legal contact details. Frequently, however, addresses are created entirely by guessing plausible combinations, for example info@domain.de.

Address harvesters also source from newspaper contests or shopping centres. Always read the fine print before you enter your e-mail address in an entry form. Another popular source is commercial retailers using e-mail addresses for advertising purposes. Most professional retailers maintain massive databases with millions of e-mail addresses. However, the BSI continues to see an increase in trade in illegally acquired addresses stolen from infected systems.