Detect and Deter Spam More Effectively

In 2022, Abnormal has seen a 91% increase in unwanted emails across our customer base. Naturally, we are excited to announce that Abnormal customers will now have fewer spam messages to wade through.

Abnormal has improved the spam detection models in our core Inbound Email Security product. For most of our customers, this enhancement delivers two primary benefits:

• Filters twice the volume of spam to a hidden folder.

• Frees up more time for security analysts, with less user-reported spam reported to the Abuse Mailbox.

This detection improvement will help you avoid dealing with the growing barrage of 14.5 billion unwanted and unsolicited spam emails sent daily.

This enhancement is designed to address the evolution of spam. In the earlier days of email, many would lump spam emails into the bucket of bulk scam emails that were often more malicious in nature. Bulk emails promoting too-good-to-be-true business opportunities, fake job offers, and get-rich-quick schemes have been ubiquitous for decades now.

While those types of scammy spam emails still exist, the volume of less nefarious spam has also significantly grown in volume.

Modern spam may not contain any deceptive content or even intentions to deceive. This spam may be sent by technically valid email accounts that pass some validations like DKIM and SPF, but its subject matter is rarely helpful or relevant, and the sender isn’t easily traceable. These spam messages often contain no branding or other validating information that you could use to verify the entity’s existence.

Fortunately, this type of spam doesn’t usually contain attack vectors like phishing links or malicious attachments. Effectively, it’s spam that increases the number of annoying interruptions in your inbox.

In recessions, a common example of this type of modern spam email are messages promoting employment and debt relief services. Scanning your inbox may show you spam that uses language like:

• “You’re at risk for losing your home; here is how you can protect it”

• “Job information for work from home part-time job” ”

Below are screenshots showing the type of spam our enhanced model will detect and remediate.

The first example is a fake job opportunity targeting college students. This is not the type of email that a “University Student” is likely to respond to, but it’s still a nuisance.

In the next example, scammers pose as consultants offering legal services. While some of the individuals who receive the above message may actually need legal assistance, the majority of recipients will view this as another obstacle in their quest for inbox zero.

Abnormal’s spam detection model has always filtered out unsolicited and unhelpful “junk mail” along with more malicious spam. By analyzing relationships, intent, and content, our solution can identify and remediate malicious spam emails to a hidden folder, protecting end users.

To battle the 91% year-over-year increase in the volume of unwanted email we've seen across our customer base, Abnormal's Inbound Email Security can now detect twice as many spam messages.

The enhanced detection model takes our Inbound Email Security spam detection to the next level by leveraging behavioral intelligence that identifies more known-good behaviors to identify anomalies in emails that indicate spam. For example, older domains are less likely than young domains to be carrying out this newer type of spam we are now filtering out of inboxes.

Existing customers are already benefiting from enhanced spam detection and will find additional spam emails in the Threat Log. While preventing modern forms of spam from landing in your primary inbox continues to be a challenge, leveraging advanced behavioral AI to effectively filter out this proliferation of newer spam can help you and your team gain back productivity.

To learn more about Abnormal's unique approach to Unwanted mail, visit our solutions page.