90% of all emails sent are spam! Shocking? The Story of email
Dropmyemail lists down strong reasons via an infographic why email backup is very important
"My mails are not that important. I don't think I need email backup and it is highly improbable that I'll lose my gmail account" is a pretty common statement.
Such statements seem ignorant if you look at the appalling statistics. According to Comm Touch, a research report on the “State of Hacked Accounts” reveals alarming statistics on the usual free accounts that most users gravitate to such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and even Facebook. One website is hacked every 5 seconds and a whopping 540 million email accounts are targeted by hackers each year which means that every 1 in 5 email user is affected. At least 62% of all email users are unaware of the risk associated with their accounts and when these accounts are compromised. Less than 33% of users are not even aware when their accounts are hacked where over half of them rely on someone else to point out suspicious activity.
Compromised accounts will be used for many variations of two fraudulent purposes, Spam and Scam. As hacked accounts have “clean” IP address, the majority of them will be used to send unwarranted spam emails or fake links to malware/spyware/virus infested sites. Also, close friends on the contact list treasure personal emails, hackers send out “Friend stuck overseas” emails to exploit this trust for cash. Trusted sites with financial transactions can be diverted to phony sources. To many receiving such email or links, these may be laughable attempts at a con, but enough people get deceived for these spam and scams to continue.
Finally, to clear all traces of their activities, first, hackers alter all personal details so the real owners cannot claim ownership. Second, all data, emails and contacts will be deleted. Webmasters will help suspend the account but they will take at least 2 weeks to return it to the legitimate owner and there is no way to restore the data lost.
It may be troublesome but to protect your emails, account details and privacy, you should reconsider. Simply put, backing up your emails is the easiest way for a peace of mind for your online interactions.
There are many different ways to make sure email communication is secure which are mentioned in the infographic.