There are an estimated 300 billion email messages sent each day and since there about 1.75 billion email users, that averages out to about 168 emails per user.

Now, I am sure there are some people who get that much email but the average user probably only receives that many per month.

So where is the rest of the email coming from? One word. Spam.

Spammers make up for the average user who doesn’t send or receive that much email. Because of the improving quality of spam filters out there, the email never gets to your inbox or even past the mail servers. So your email service provider is catching anywhere between 90 and 97% of mail that sent to you which means you get real mail.

However some mail makes it through because of the action of unsuspecting users.

There are a few precautions that one should take when handling mail and we are going to take you through a few of them.

1. Do not open suspicious-looking email
2. You know you have not entered a lottery. You are not the beneficiary of a Nigerian prince. So don’t  respond  to scams like that
3. When you send an email to a lot of people on your list, use the BCC option. Most email programmes save email addresses that you send to automatically and spammers will harvest these when a compromised recipient gets the mail.
4. When using a public terminal it is not enough to just log out. Delete the browser cache, passwords and history. Also close the browser.
5. Do not respond to fraudulent emails that ask for your details with the threat of account closure. A lot of spammers will use a logo from a company you trust claiming they need your billing information, passwords and the like. If a message of that sort comes from email that looks like the one you normally receive from ZOL, ignore it.
6. Use your updated anti-virus programme to scan all attachments before opening them.
7. Don’t use simple and easy-to-remember passwords. Actually, it is recommended that you change your password every 45 days.

These are only but a few of some of the steps you can take to ensure that your mail is secure. While ZOL will continue to upgrade its Spam Filtering it is also up to you to make sure that you are not compromised.

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