If you’ve ever entered your contact information into an online form, subscribed to a newsletter or simply spent time online, your email and phone inbox likely has messages from spammers and scammers. And in today's digital-first landscape, knowing who to trust—and what to open—helps protect you and your business from both.
Between scam vs spam—what’s the difference?
Generally speaking, spammers are harmless marketers who inundate your inbox with unsolicited messages. Scammers, however, are malicious actors seeking to deceive under a false pretense.
Knowing the key differences and red flags is your first line of defense in navigating this maze of digital deceit. And for businesses leveraging email or SMS as their marketing tools or automated reminders, it’s essential to know these two terms intimately, so you can keep your business out of legal compliance trouble.
Although, on the receiving end, they can sometimes feel similar, spam and scam are not interchangeable terms.
Spammers' primary intention is promotional or marketing-focused. They’re the people who hop into your email inbox with unsolicited messages that aim to drive clicks and engagement toward a product, service or website. On the legal spectrum, spam is considered legal if it follows the guidelines in the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (see below for more details).
Scammers are malicious actors who use sophisticated tactics to extract money or sensitive information from unsuspecting victims. For example, phishing is a social engineering tactic that lulls recipients into a false sense of security. The scammer might illegally pose as your bank, a government agency or even a family member in distress. These types of emails, messages and calls can appear legitimate, but their ultimate goal is to steal money or data. Or, in some instances, they might attempt to plant malware or ransomware onto your system.
For enterprises, especially, phishing scams aren’t just a nuisance—they’re one of the most significant financial and security risks a company will likely face. According to IBM's 2022 Cost of Data Breach Report, stolen or compromised credentials resulting from phishing scams were the leading cause of data breaches, accounting for 19% of all incidents this year. All totaled, these breaches had an average cost of $4.5 million. And that doesn’t account for indirect costs, such as reputational harm or erosion of consumer trust.
As a comprehensive breakdown, let’s review spam vs scam as it pertains to intent, content type, goal, legality and potential harm to the recipient:
|
Spammers |
Scammers |
|
|
Intent |
Generally promotional; marketing-focused |
Malicious; aims to deceive |
|
Content |
Unsolicited emails, messages or pop-ups |
Emails, messages, calls or websites that appear legitimate but aren’t |
|
Goal |
Drive clicks and views to a product, service or website |
Extract money or sensitive information, access the system, load malware or ransomware |
|
Legal Status |
Often legal, though regulated by the CAN-SPAM Act |
Illegal |
|
Harm Factor |
Low; generally considered a nuisance |
High; can lead to financial loss or identity theft |
To protect yourself and your company, knowing the key characteristics of each message type is half the battle. Scammers' and spammers’ tactics may differ, but their underlying goal is the same: to convince you to click, respond or reveal something.
For scammers, deception is the central theme in their toolkit. Scammers tend to deploy more complex schemes and methods meant to prey upon human psychology and emotions. In most cases, their goal is to appear as genuine and legitimate as possible. Sophisticated scammers will work meticulously to mimic the look and tone of legitimate communications to convince the recipient that the message comes from a trusted source.
Spam messages, on the other hand, are often lower-effort. Rather than focusing on a single target, spammers play a numbers game by sending out a barrage of generic messages, hoping that a percentage of recipients might click on one. That said, some scammers can use spam messages as the first step in a more elaborate scheme.
What are the common red flags or distinguishing factors?
Naturally, for businesses attempting to reach customers or send out well-intentioned unsolicited messages, the question becomes how to ensure communications aren't mistaken for spam—or worse, scams.
The goal here is to maintain authenticity, relevance and, most importantly, trust. To accomplish that, keep the following best practices and CAN-SPAM Act legal requirements in mind:
While spam is generally non-malicious and marketing-focused, it can sometimes be a backdoor for more harmful scams. Businesses need to be cautious of opening such messages and sending out communications that could be mistaken for spam or scams. They must also abide by advertisement laws for text messaging and email.
Utilizing a compliant text messaging platform like Textedly can help ensure that you don’t appear as spam or a scam. As the #1 rated texting platform, we specialize in delivering your messages the right way, offering the secure and effective solutions you need in this complex digital landscape.
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