According to the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team or US-CERT, unsolicited commercial email, or “spam,” is the starting point for many email scams.

The convenience and anonymity of email, along with the capability it provides for easily contacting thousands of people at once, enables scammers to work in volume.

Scammers only need to fool a small percentage of the tens of thousands of people they email for their ruse to pay off.

For tips on reducing spam in your email in-box, see US-CERT Cyber Security Tip ST04-007, “Reducing Spam”: https://www.uscert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-007.html