We have already seen a brief discussion of how e-mails works both when we send it and when we receive it, so now it’s time to know which kind of undesired mail we can receive.
Spam: the classic and oldest type of undesired mail. In fact, any kind of e-mail sent massively and without the consent of the receiver is considered to be spam, but to distinguish them we usually call it spam when it’s some kind of advertising trying to sell legal or illegal products.
Phishing: this is a technique used to collect sensitive information from users, such as passwords or bank account details. E-mail of this type tries to disguise as legitimate mail but points to fake webservers where you are asked to enter the information.
Viruses: in old times viruses spread through floppy disks but with the rising of the use of e-mail creators have changed the distribution method and worms (as these kinds of viruses are known) are nowadays one of the most common type of virus.
Chain letters: these usually come from people we know, so it’s easier to trust them, but almost always contain false information. We can distinguish them because they try to expand some kind of rumour, such as non-deletable viruses, methods of obtaining free presents from some companies or threats of something bad happening to us if they are not forwarded to a specified quantity of people.
Trojans: similar to viruses but usually not send massively, only to an intended recipient as a method of gaining control of his computer or information stored in it.
There are some more kinds of undesired mail but these are the most important ones. We are going to have a look at each of them and discover how they work and how to avoid them.
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