Categorizing Junk eMail

Usually our eyes glaze over when we look at the enormous pile of spam in our inbox. It all seems like such nonsense, an electronic Tower of Babel that loses any specific meaning in an ocean of noise. However, there a many different kinds of kinds of Junk eMail and understanding the difference and details of each kind helps fight the problem. KnujOn recognizes these various types and has a different process for each one. As a victim of Junk eMail it is important to understand the different threat each one represents and why it is necessary to address these threats head-on. The format of these reports are designed to give you the most useful and actionable information by addressing these questions: What is it? Why is it a problem? How would it affect me? and What can be done? We provide samples, resources and specific cases for each.

Delivery Medium

• Malware

  Viruses and spyware. Emails can contain viruses and are usually spawned by another machine infected by the same virus. What is the difference between viruses and spyware? Sometimes nothing, but usually a virus replicates itself on your PC and then tries to infect other machines via email or infected files. Spyware launches pop-ups, hijacks browsers, loads bookmarks/favorites. Both can expose machines to hacking, theft or file damage. More...

• Junk Faxes

  May contain any one of the items above but is slightly different because may come to your inbox if you have fax software. More...

• Search Stacking

  Usually phishing-type sites loaded with keywords that drag search engines down and fool consumers.

• Redirection Scripting

  Often cyphered scripts posted on free websites used to redirect to spam sites.

• Blogs and Forums

Financial

• Mortgage/Loan

  Offers of large loans for impossible rates. More...

• Stock Market Manipulation

  Pump and Dump schemes that have become a very serious problem. More...

• Phishing

  Faked emails that appear to come from banks, ebay, PayPal, Amazon or any other site that has on-line transactions. More...

• Traditional Deposit Scams

  A total stranger want to give you money. Sometimes called "Nigerian"/419 scams, they can come from anywhere and predate the Internet by hundreds of years. No one gives anything away for free. More...

Product-Driven

• Counterfeits

  Counterfeits and "replicas" More...

• Prescription Drugs

  Offers sales of controlled substances. More...

• Software

  Name brand software offered for bellow list prices. More...

• Vacations

  Super-Cheap vacation and travel packages. More...

Remainders

• Degrees

  Offers GED, BA, MBA, PhD and it is all BS. More...

• Miscellaneous, Bizarre Stuff

  It is junk mail, but is it spam? More...