There is at least one issue on which most computer users agree, and it is that they hate spam emails.
Though your email service may segregate and put the spam messages into a separate folder which does not show up on the main inbox page, clever spammers manage to send their emails to your primary inbox all too often.
Every time you see such emails, you delete them without bothering to read them.
Then, on occasion, when you find some time, you click on the unsubscribe option hoping to get rid of the menace.
But, again, clever spammers will be back with more spam emails in no time.
So, what if you can find ways to spam the spammer, in a manner of speaking?
People have successfully done it, and it’s worth knowing how you can do it too. Here are some examples:
Provide a Fake Email ID/Spammers’ Own Email ID:
If you take a look at the spam email, it will be usually trying to pitch from some product or service and would want your email ID where they could send more information.
Just send them an email address that you don’t use. Avoid giving out email addresses that can have a direct impact on your daily routine.
The funniest and possibly the most interesting thing people have done to get back at the spammers is to change their email address to that of the spammer.
You will be surprised to know they will send their spam emails to their own email ID as well.
They operate using automated email servers and as soon as an email ID is found, their system will add it to their list and keep sending the messages.
Send the Spammer on a Spin with a Spam ID:
Another effective trick is to send the spammer on a spin by giving them the email address Sp@mLooper.
Now, the person who created the sp@mLooper bot has given the following steps to do this:
- Person A sends you a spam email.
- Once you understand the contents are irrelevant to you and it is spam, you forward it to Sp@mLooper.com.
- The bot present in Sp@mLooper removes your name and adds the spammer’s name on the list. If a conversation is started and held, it is between the original spammer and the new identity, which is the spammer himself.
- The spammer will keep replying to Spam Looper.
- And this process can carry on.
- Use a Spam Blocker:
Now there are tools available to help you deal with the menace of spam emails.
There are apps which can take over the job of dealing with the spammer without you having to bother about it.
Since it is mobile phones which are used for spam calls, mobile apps such as Robokiller can do the responding and keep the spammer engaged with conversation that will be of no use to the spammer until they realize it is a waste of time and hang up.
The time the spammer wastes with your chatbot app may cost them money, and even if it doesn’t, you might feel satisfied by sparing someone else who would have been at the receiving end of the spam call.
The example shown above like Sp@mLooper can be tried with Spamnesty as well. You may have to be careful with not letting out your own email address, but you can forward the spam email to Spamnesty.
This triggers off a conversation with the spammer and the chatbot poses itself as a CEO.
The really fascinating part in this exercise is that you can read through this exchange of conversation and enjoy the disconcertment of the spammer, for whom, in any case, you have no love lost.
It is possible many people who felt frustrated with the spammers have been giving it back to them.
However, as indicated above, not everyone can spare the time or patience to keep doing this day in and day out, because it is not as if you do some of these things and the spammer stops sending you their spam emails from the next day.
However, the silver lining in the issue is that cybersecurity companies are reporting a huge drop in the quantity of spam emails and even phishing campaigns taking place today.
Some suggest it could be probably due to the rise of mobile devices becoming the preferred way to access the internet and the spammers would have moved on to platforms like social media to cause the damage they were doing through phishing.
