How does Rocketspark keep me safe from spam and phish?
Although "Spam" and "Phish" sound like two characters from a Dr Seuss children's book or a bad meal in a can, these two words represent financial losses to legitimate organisations of over $2 billion per year. Spammers and phishers trawl the Internet looking for people to scam - and we at Rocketspark want to do our best to keep your website safe from them. Here's how we do it.
Firstly, we encourage all of our Rocketspark clients to use an email form for customers to contact your business with questions or purchasing information. Having an email form means you do not have to publish your email address anywhere on your website - which is a great defense mechanism against spammers. Spammers around the globe have created "Spambots" which automatically scan the Internet, looking for any email addresses they can find. Once they've discovered an email address, the spammers can then sell this information to advertisers around the world - leading to a whole load of junk mail heading your way! Email forms are a great way to avoid spammers, as your email address is not listed on your page - yet your customers can still get in touch with you directly from your website.
Once you start using an email form on your website, you will notice that any enquiries that your customers are making are being emailed to you from Rocketspark, with the sender listed as info@rocketspark.co.nz or .co.uk. This is not a mistake but is another great way that Rocketspark is fighting back against the spammers and phishers, whilst endeavoring that everyone of your customers enquiries gets into your email inbox, where you can turn that message into an action!
Phishers are Internet scammers who try to trick you by appearing to come from a trusted source. They create emails and websites that mimic trusted companies (Google, Facebook, banks etc.) and attempt to get you to enter your personal information into their site, which they can then use for their profit. Thankfully, the email programs that you use (Outlook, Google+ etc.) are tightening up their security against phishers, which makes it a lot harder for their scam messages to get through to your inbox. Unfortunately - this also means that some genuine enquiries into your website can also get directed straight into your Junk folder, leading to lost sales and poor customer relations.
The Rocketspark email forms bypass this problem by sending all enquiries from the info@rocketspark address, which is a trusted source and is approved by most major email providers. Emails coming from info@rocketspark should go straight into your Inbox(rather than your spam folder), allowing you to give your customers immediate attention. Even better, when you click "Reply" to the email, the message you write will automatically go to your customer's email - not back to info@rocketspark...
We encourage all of our clients to setup email forms for their website as a protection against spam and phishers and also to maximise your efficiency in replying to all your website enquiries. The email form also allows you to see how many of your website views are turning into enquiries, as you can easily identify which emails are coming directly from your website. Best of all - if you are a Rocketspark client, email forms are free for you to implement on your website - so there's no cost in adding this great security measure to your online experience!
If you are keen to start using email forms now, head to our Rocketspark user guide for how to add an email contact form to your website and learn how to add a form today. Its easy!
