From AptivateOER

Spam

Spam is unwanted email, usually it carries advertising material, such as cheap loans, get-rich-quick schemes to pills and potions, and promotion of pornographic web sites. It is also common for spam email to be a scheme that tries to get you to send money or give your bank details away. This second type of spam might be an email with a long sad story, or a story about millions of dollars in a bank account that only you can help someone access.

Spam is annoying because it fills up your Inbox with useless emails. However, it can also be dangerous if you follow its directions because spam is usually ultimately trying to get money from you.

Spam email is not sent by someone that knows you personally- even though it is sent to your email address, this is done by accessing many email addresses that exist all at once, often using a special programme, rather than individual people typing in addresses. In this sense, the spam email is not addressed to you personally. You should feel no need to respond to it: in fact, the best thing to do with spam is to delete it, (See the chapter on 'Deleting Emails').

As you become more accustomed to using email and you see more spam messages, you will be able to recognise it without even opening it, and you can delete it straight away. This is the best thing to do.

Spam email might look like this in your Inbox:

Here's what the header of a spam email looks like:

Here's an example spam email message:

You don't know who this person is, the email has not been addressed to you personally and you absolutely should not reply with your personal details!

• If you suspect an email is spam you can just delete it.
  
• Never answer spam: this only confirms your email address as being a real one.
  
• Never send financial or personal details, or any other personal details about yourself as a reply to an email you suspect is spam.
  
• Don't follow any hyperlinks from an email you suspect to be spam.
  
• Never click on any attachments to a spam email. They could contain computer 'viruses' which can damage your computer.