P.S. I am Not Your Friend...

Whitelist your real friends and ignore spam friends.

The other day it dawned on me that I had not gone through one of my email account’s junk folders. Since I have several websites, I have several email accounts to monitor.

So I took some time to do so. You want to regularly review your junk/trash folders for misidentified legit emails. I have been pretty busy and haven’t practiced what I preach in this regard. Boo me.

Emails will land in those folders in error, which happens constantly. I usually find a legitimate email or two when I check my junk folder. What I do at that point is whitelist those addresses, so it doesn’t happen again.

In my case, I had to send out several humble apologies for the lack of a prompt response. While it’s common for provider filters to misidentify legit emails as spam, we must check those folders for false positives.

TIP: Because I didn’t practice what I preach, and to ensure I keep on top of this moving forward, I’ve added a reminder on my Google calendar to check my junk folders every Friday.

The Longer You Wait

Because I had neglected to do so for almost a month, there were nearly 500 pieces of junk mail in my various accounts. I had to weed through them, clear the ones that were okay, and delete those that were, in fact, spam.

What surprised me is that spam hasn’t changed all that much in the decades I’ve been emailing. Still, the same old male enhancement, get rich quick, fake purchases, and fake account alerts made to look like companies you do business with. All ask you to click on links or update your account. (Don’t do it!)

Besides that, what stood out was the number of spam addressing me as “Dear Friend.” Do those who send these emails think that addressing strangers as “Dear Friend” somehow endears them to us or makes their pitch more palatable? Or less scammy?

Maybe to some. The thing is, they wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work.

Spam Detection Tips

The fact that spam tactics haven’t changed much tells me that those tactics still produce. Time would not be spent sending emails like that unless a certain percentage paid off. So that being the case, here are some links for you to brush up on your spam detection skills:

So mark your calendars to check your junk folders and… choose your friends wisely.