Although almost all under 24s connect to the Internet today via their mobile phone or computer, 80% of 60-69 year olds and nearly 60% of those 70 and over are also in this situation. Obviously, the use of the Internet differs according to the age categories. But many seniors use their email in particular to correspond with their loved ones, their relations, and to receive press and commercial information, etc. Like the rest of the population, they are confronted with spam, also known as unwanted emails or spam.
“Spam is unsolicited electronic communication “, as indicated by the Ministry of the Economy. These are unwanted emails, often received in droves and which saturate mailboxes, from senders with whom the Internet users who are victims have never had a connection. Spams are sent to email addresses retrieved from the Internet or generated automatically by their authors.
There are several types of spam:
Faced with the arrival of spam in your mailbox, several behaviors must absolutely be adopted to protect yourself against these unsolicited emails, which can sometimes be dangerous for you.
First, you should never reply to spam because, by doing so, you let the sender know if your email address is valid, and therefore let him know that he can reuse it.
Then, you should never click on a link embedded in this type of spam message. It is indeed through this, using cookies (small files placed without your knowledge on the hard drive of your computer) or other types of computer tracers that the sender can recover information about you. Similarly, and for the same reasons, you should never open spam attachments.
Finally, in order to limit the risks due to spam, you have the option of equipping your e-mail with an anti-spam filter. Most Internet service providers (ISPs) or email software such as Gmail, Thunderbird, Outlook, etc., offer them, but there are some, free or paid, that you can install yourself. These different filters inspect your emails on their respective servers before they arrive on your mailbox and direct them directly to a directory in your mailbox called spam or unwanted, or delete them automatically.
In France, the public authorities provide Internet users with the Signal Spam software, developed by an association which actively participates in the fight against these unwanted and sometimes dangerous emails. This software can be downloaded from the signal-spam.fr website. It is automatically integrated into your email and allows you in one click to report fraudulent messages you receive.
Signal Spam thus identifies the spams sent by users using its software and identifies in particular the senders of these spams in order to then transmit this information to the competent bodies and authorities to carry out the fight in the field against companies or scammers. source of these unwanted emails. “Reports provide the digital evidence that investigators and public authorities need to initiate control and sanction procedures against companies that abusively send out prospecting e-mails, and legal action against cybercriminals “, as indicated by the association Signal Spam.
If you are the subject of spam with criminal content (pedophilia or corruption of minors on the Internet, incitement to racial hatred or incitement to discrimination, threats or incitement to violence, illicit trafficking in narcotics, arms , etc., endangering persons, incitement to commit offences, insult or defamation, fraud, or threat and advocacy of terrorism), the public authorities provide the Internet users concerned with a platform on which to report these actions:the Internet. signalement.gouv.fr.
