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Spam

What is Spam?

In the Simpliest Terms...

Spam is nothing more than flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. The messages usually consist of commercial advertising for questionable products, or get-rich-quick schemes.

There are two main types of spam, Cancelable Usenet Spam and Email Spam.

Cancelable Usenet Spam

This is a single message aimed at people who read newsgroups but rarely or never post and give their address away.

Email Spam

The form of spam targets the individual user with direct mail messages. Email spam lists are often created by stealing Internet mailing lists, or scouring the Web for addresses.

The hassle of having to sift through email everyday, just to weed out the spam mail, is not where the trouble of spam ends.

Email spam is very costly to the recipient, both directly and indirectly. Directly speaking, many people read or receive their mail while online, or while the meter is running, so to speak. In this instance the recipient is paying for the time it takes to download and delete the spam. Indirectly to the recipient, it costs money for ISP's and online services to transmit spam, and these costs are transmitted to subscribers (the spam recipients) through increased service rates.