Spam vs Phishing: What You Need to Know to Protect Your Employees

Phishing and spam emails can often look similar. Both spam and phishing messages are unsolicited and intrusive, and both try to get you to take some kind of action. But a few key differences set them apart.

This guide covers what those differences are, how to recognize each type of message, and the practical measures you can take to keep your organization safe and secure.

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What is phishing?

The goal of phishing is to gain access to a system, gain monetary benefits, steal information or cause harm to you or your organization.

These attacks often include emotional triggers. They create urgency to get you to act before you check whether the message is legitimate.

How does phishing work?

Types of phishing scams

• Email phishing: the most common form of attack, where attackers send emails that appear to come from legitimate sources.
• Spear phishing: a more targeted form of phishing, where attackers tailor their messages to a specific individual or organization, often using personal information to appear more convincing.
• Whaling: also known as whaling phishing, a type of spear phishing that targets high-profile individuals such as executives or important stakeholders within an organization.
• Smishing: phishing attacks conducted via SMS messages.

Quick history of phishing

The general concept of phishing can be traced back to AOL in the 1990s, when a group of hackers known as the “warez community” pretended to be AOL employees, gathered user credentials and personal information, and used it to generate random credit card numbers.

By the early 2000s, hackers had registered multiple new domains pretending to be websites like eBay and PayPal, and used them to send fraudulent emails to eBay and PayPal consumers with illegal worm software attached. Those who fell for these phishing emails were duped into supplying credit card information and other personal information.

By 2004, phishing had become a lucrative business: Hackers were targeting banks, businesses, and their customers, with popup windows as one of the main attack types at the time. Bad actors then expanded their arsenal further, adding spear phishing, vishing (voice phishing), smishing, and keylogging (malware that records every keystroke).

Phishing tactics have since grown far more sophisticated, including QR code phishing, invoice fraud, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) fatigue attacks.

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What is spam?

Spam messages are usually considered unwanted, noisy and annoying.

But they’re not sent with malicious intent.

Spam can include event invitations, mailing list marketing, and promotional offers.

How does spam work?

Types of spam

• Email spam: unwanted emails sent in bulk, often advertising products or services.
• Social media spam: unwanted posts or messages on social media platforms, often promoting scams or misleading content.
• Messaging spam: unsolicited messages sent through SMS, messaging apps, or chat services.
• Comment spam: irrelevant or promotional comments posted on blogs, forums, or social media posts.

Quick history of spam

One of the earliest examples of spam can be traced back to 1864, when a telegram advertising teeth whitening was sent to a large number of British politicians.

The first unsolicited email dates to 1978 on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet: a promotion for a new model of computer. Spam was still a novelty at the time, so the approach actually worked.

By the 1980s, people had formed regional online communities known as bulletin boards, where users would repeatedly write the word “spam” to drown out each other during online debates, a reference to a Monty Python sketch. That is how the term came to mean noisy, obnoxious messages, much to the dismay of the canned pork and ham brand of the same name.

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Spam vs phishing: what’s the difference?

What are the goals of these messages?

Spam and phishing share the same delivery method, but not the same goal.

Goals of phishing

Goals of spam

What do they have in common?

Both spam and phishing messages are unsolicited and are sent without consent.

They’re usually both distributed in large volumes to numerous recipients and can disrupt normal email communication by clogging inboxes.

Differences between spam and phishing

The primary difference between spam and phishing lies in their content and threat levels.

Spam emails are commercial in nature, aiming to promote products or services. While they’re generally low in threat level, they can sometimes carry malware in attachments. Spam can also be much easier to detect using basic filters due to its repetitive and recognizable patterns.

Phishing emails are deceptive. Their objective is to trick recipients into providing sensitive information. Phishing poses a high threat level and usually involves more advanced tactics. Detecting phishing emails is more challenging than spam. This often requires advanced filtering and investing in phishing training for your employees.

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How to spot phishing and spam emails

How to recognize phishing emails

Can you verify the sender?

• Check the display name: Ensure the sender’s display name matches other identifying features in the email, such as the email address or signature.
• Familiarity: Have you received emails from this sender before? If not, it might be a phishing red flag.
• Email address: Verify that the email address is one you regularly receive emails from.
• Typosquatting: Look out for slight misspellings in the domain name (e.g., “microsoft.com” vs. “rnicrosoft.com”).
• Business relationship: Consider if you have a business relationship with the sender and if it makes sense for them to contact you about the topic.
• Verification: If in doubt, contact the sender through another channel, like a phone call, to confirm the legitimacy of the email.

Is the subject line suspicious?

• Urgent or threatening language: Be cautious of subject lines that create a sense of urgency or fear, urging immediate action.
• Previous contact: Check if the email is a reply to a previous conversation you had. If not, it could be a tactic to gain your trust.

Are there other recipients?

• Multiple recipients: Has the email been sent to multiple recipients? This can be a sign of a phishing attempt, especially if they are undisclosed.
• Known contacts: Verify if the other recipients are known to you and if it makes sense for them to be included in the email.

Is the date and time unusual?

• Odd timing: If the email was sent at an unusual time or during non-working hours this could be cause for suspicion. Cross-check the sender’s time zone to see if the timing makes sense (note: This doesn’t mean all emails sent during working hours are necessarily safe).

Does the body of the email look legitimate?

• Tone and language: Be wary of threatening, urging, or overly emotional language designed to provoke quick action.
• Greeting: Legitimate contacts will usually greet you in a familiar manner. Generic greetings can be a red flag.
• Request validity: Is the sender’s request reasonable given your role and the context?
• Signature: Check if the email signature contains complete contact details and matches previous emails from the same sender.
• Attachments: Be cautious of attachments, especially if they are unusual or unexpected. Office and PDF files can carry malicious payloads.

Are there suspicious hyperlinks?

• Hover and check: Hover over links to see the actual URL. Verify if they lead to legitimate domains.
• Typosquatting and misspellings: Check for slight misspellings in the URLs.
• Link shorteners: Avoid clicking on shortened URLs like Bitly or TinyURL.

How to recognize spam emails

Does the sender and subject line look like spam?

• Unfamiliar senders: Spam emails are usually from unknown senders offering unsolicited services or products.
• Generic subject lines: Look for generic, attention-grabbing subject lines designed to entice you to open the email.

Is the content promotional?

• Promotional content: Most spam emails are promotional, advertising events, services, products, or miracle cures.
• Avoid clicking links: Do not click on any links or provide personal information. Even clicking “unsubscribe” can confirm your email address to spammers.

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How to protect your organization from phishing and spam

Step 1: Technical measures

Use advanced spam filters

First off, you’ll need a spam filter to detect and block spam emails before they reach the inbox.

These filters use a combination of techniques to identify spam and phishing attempts.

They analyze email content for common spam characteristics, identify known spam sources and trusted senders, and use filtering to spot suspicious patterns.

Blacklist malicious domains

Found a malicious domain? Regularly update and maintain blacklists of these known domains to prevent phishing emails from reaching employees.

Implement MFA

Require multi-factor authentication for accessing sensitive systems and data; this adds an extra layer of security beyond just passwords.

Whilst this won’t necessarily prevent employees from receiving malicious content, it will help mitigate the potential damage of a successful phishing attempt.

MFA is not bulletproof, thanks to adversary-in-the-middle tactics. So, employees will need to stay vigilant so that they do not enter their credentials on fraudulent sites.

Use email authentication protocols

Implement SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) to verify the authenticity of email senders and prevent spoofing.

Consider using threat detection and response tools

These tools are designed to identify, analyze, and mitigate security threats within your organization’s IT environment.

They provide real-time visibility into potential threats and allow you to contain threats that make it past your organization’s defenses.

Step 2: Employee education

Invest in effective phishing training

On their own, technical filters are rarely enough to prevent phishing scams.

60% of breaches involve the human element (Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2025).

The most effective way to reduce human risk is through frequent, adaptive training. But not every training approach changes behavior, and that’s exactly what reducing risk requires.

Here are the core components of training that actually work:

This is exactly how we do training at Hoxhunt, and here’s what it helps organizations achieve: a 3x drop in failure rates within a year and 71% real-threat detection within two years, plus 90%+ engagement rates along the way.

For a full breakdown of how to maximize training outcomes, check out our Employee Cyber Security Training Guide.

Step 3: Security policies and incident reporting

Have clear policies in place

Make sure you have clear security policies, including guidelines on how to handle suspicious emails and use email properly.

You may also want to check these are clearly communicated with employees.

Make sure reporting is easy

If reporting is a long, painful process, employees just won’t report threats. Be sure to provide an easy way for employees to report suspicious emails.

When Hoxhunt users come across a suspicious email in their inbox that fits the description of either phishing or spam, they can simply click the Hoxhunt button to report it.

This one-click process removes any friction from reporting so that no threats make it past your organization’s human firewall.

A simple reporting process is one piece of the puzzle. The other piece will be encouraging a culture where reporting potential threats is seen as a positive action. Even when a reported threat turns out to be a false alarm, employees should never be criticized for reporting it.

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Reduce noise and remove attacks from employee inboxes with Hoxhunt

Even with email filters in place, some threats will still make it to your employees’ inboxes.

This is why Hoxhunt built its security operations tool to defend against the phishing attacks that your email filters don’t catch.

It finds and removes phishing campaigns reported by users around the world, using Hoxhunt’s 4 million-strong global threat network (Hoxhunt Phishing Trends Report 2026).

Here are its key features:

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Spam vs phishing FAQ