spam
E-mail that is not requested. Also known as "unsolicited commercial e-mail" (UCE), "unsolicited bulk e-mail" (UBE), "gray mail" and just plain "junk mail," the term is both a noun (the e-mail message) and a verb (to send it). Spam is mostly used to advertise products and sometimes to broadcast some political or social commentary.
The term was supposedly coined from a Monty Python comedy sketch in the early 1970s, in which every item on a restaurant menu contained SPAM, and there was nothing a customer could do to get a meal without it. The sketch was derived from the fact that in England during World War II, SPAM (Hormel's processed meat) was abundantly available while other foods were rationed. Many believe spam is an acronym for "sales promotional advertising mail" or "simultaneously posted advertising message."
A Social Plague
Like viruses, spam has become a scourge on the Internet as billions of unwanted messages are transmitted daily to almost every e-mail recipient as well as to newsgroups. Unfortunately for users and fortunately for spammers, as an advertising medium, spam does produce results. Even if only an infinitesimal number of users reply, it is still cost effective since e-mail is a very inexpensive way to reach people.
ISPs Work Overtime
In order to alleviate some spam, ISPs have added an enormous number of servers doing nothing more than spam filtering (see spam filter). The CAN-SPAM act in the U.S. became law on January 1, 2004, which provides severe penalties for spammers, if they can be located (see CAN-SPAM). Since then, spam has been on the rise with an estimated 183 billion spam messages per day in 2006 or 70% of all e-mail traffic. See image spam, SPIM, SPIT, mobile phone spam, form spam, mail bomb, Joe Job, SPF, letter bomb, spamdexing, Blacklist of Internet Advertisers, munging, RBL, ROKSO, MAPS, spam relay, spam trap, botnet, rogue site and opt-in.
Spam Filters Create More Spam
As spam filtering becomes more sophisticated, spammers have to send even more spam to make the same money, but e-mail lists can be purchased for very little or hijacked. There is a thriving business selling e-mail lists to spammers as well as lists of compromised computers (see zombie). There are even third-party spam service providers that will do all the work for you.
Easy to Rationalize
Spammers justify their existence by citing the enormous amount of unsolicited ads we get via the postal system, which wastes trees and other resources. They claim advertisers pollute the environment every day with obnoxious ads on TV, radio, buses and billboards. Of course, they have a point, especially regarding the tons of paper thrown in the "real" trash can every day. However, none of these other approaches threaten to close down the system they live in.
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| From the Horse's Mouth |
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| This book was written by a spammer, known only to readers as "Spammer-X." For insights into the minds of real people who spam for a living and explanations of how they do it, read "Inside the SPAM Cartel." (Syngress, 2004, ISBN 1-932266-86-0) |
spam Computing slang
| 1. | (messaging) | spam - (From Hormel's Spiced Ham, via the Monty Python
"Spam" song) To post irrelevant or inappropriate messages to
one or more Usenet newsgroups, mailing lists, or other
messaging system in deliberate or accidental violation of
netiquette. It is possible to spam a newsgroup with one well- (or ill-) planned message, e.g. asking "What do you think of abortion?" on soc.women. This can be done by cross-posting, e.g. any message which is crossposted to alt.rush-limbaugh and alt.politics.homosexuality will almost inevitably spam both groups. (Compare troll and flame bait). Posting a message to a significant proportion of all newsgroups is a sure way to spam Usenet and become an object of almost universal hatred. Canter and Siegel spammed the net with their Green card post. If you see an article which you think is a deliberate spam, DO NOT post a follow-up - doing so will only contribute to the general annoyance. Send a polite message to the poster by private e-mail and CC it to "postmaster" at the same address. Bear in mind that the posting's origin might have been forged or the apparent sender's account might have been used by someone else without his permission. The word was coined as the winning entry in a 1937 competition to choose a name for Hormel Foods Corporation's "spiced meat" (now officially known as "SPAM luncheon meat"). Correspondant Bob White claims the modern use of the term predates Monty Python by at least ten years. He cites an editor for the Dallas Times Herald describing Public Relations as "throwing a can of spam into an electric fan just to see if any of it would stick to the unwary passersby." Usenet newsgroup: news:news.admin.net-abuse. See also netiquette. | |
| 2. | spam - (A narrowing of sense 1, above) To indiscriminately send
large amounts of unsolicited e-mail meant to promote a
product or service. Spam in this sense is sort of like the
electronic equivalent of junk mail sent to "Occupant". In the 1990s, with the rise in commercial awareness of the net, there are actually scumbags who offer spamming as a "service" to companies wishing to advertise on the net. They do this by mailing to collections of e-mail addresses, Usenet news, or mailing lists. Such practises have caused outrage and aggressive reaction by many net users against the individuals concerned. | ||
| 3. | spam - (Apparently a generalisation of sense 2, above) To abuse
any network service or tool by for promotional purposes. "AltaVista is an index, not a promotional tool. Attempts to fill it with promotional material lower the value of the index for everyone. [...] We will disallow URL submissions from those who spam the index. In extreme cases, we will exclude all their pages from the index." -- Altavista. | ||
| 4. | (jargon, programming) | spam - To crash a program by overrunning a
fixed-size buffer with excessively large input data. See also buffer overflow, overrun screw, smash the stack. | |
| 5. | (chat, games) | spam - (A narrowing of sense 1, above) To flood any chat forum or Internet game with purposefully annoying text or macros. Compare Scrolling. |
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