What is Spam?
Spam email is email sent to your address by an automated process or a company that has gained your email address via illegitimate means. More often than not, spam appears as advertising in your inbox and typically your Junk Filter will catch the nature of the email and automatically move it to your Junk Mail folder.
Sometimes however, spam can appear in the form of a ‘phishing’ email. These emails attempt to gain your personal information by asking you to reply to the email with your credentials. In even more extreme cases, these emails will ask you to click on a link and download a file (typically with a .zip extension) that will install malicious software on your device.
To identify spam, use these following guidelines:
- Try to identify the sender: is this email from someone you know?
- Does the email contain suspicious content? Emails with improper wording and grammar are a key factor in identifying spam.
- Does the email ask for personal information? No one should ever ask you for your Username, Password, Credit Card, or similar information via email.
- Does the email contain an internet link? Phishing emails often try to get the recipient to click on potentially harmful links.
- Please Note: By hovering your mouse over a link, you can use the ‘tips’ text that appears to see if the link sends you to place it says it’s going to.
- Does the email have a suspicious attachment? Attachments with suspicious names or that contain a .zip file are often malicious and will harm your computer if downloaded from the email.
How do I report spam?
Reporting spam is easy and helps us here at the Helpdesk to prevent future spam from that sender. To properly report spam to the Helpdesk:
- Create a NEW email to helpdesk@ubishops.ca.
- DRAG the spam email into this email. This creates an attachment that will be sent to us containing all the relevant information about the email.
- Let us know that what you’ve attached is potentially spam and send it our way!
* Please Note: Do not ‘Forward’ spam to our email as this prevents the email from retaining the information we need to prevent future spam.