How Does Spam Work?
Learn what spam is, how it works, and what you can do to stop receiving unwanted emails.
Spam is Internet slang for unsolicited email, primarily unsolicited commercial email (UCE). The use of the term "spam" (a trademarked Hormel meat product) is supposedly derived from a Monty Python sketch in which Spam is included in every dish offered at a restaurant.
Recipients of spam often consider it an unwanted intrusion in their mailbox. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as America Online, consider spam to be a financial drain and an impediment to Internet access because it can clog an ISP's available bandwidth. Spam has also been linked with fraudulent business schemes, chain letters, and offensive sexual and political messages.
Not all bulk email is spam. Some is permission-based, meaning that the recipient has asked to receive it. This occurs when a user at a website voluntarily agrees -- for example, at the time of making a purchase -- to receive a newsletter or other email (known as "opt-in email"). Unlike spam, opt-in email usually provides a benefit such as free information or sale prices. Sending unsolicited email to online customers who have not elected to receive information is considered spam.
Since most legitimate businesses recognize the public's strong anti-spam sentiment, they avoid using it. (For information, see Marketing Without Spam.)
How Spam Works
Spam is rarely sent directly by a company advertising itself. It's usually sent by a "spammer," a company in the business of distributing unsolicited email. An advertiser enters into an agreement with a spammer, who generates email advertisements to a group of unsuspecting recipients. The cost of spam is far less than postal bulk mailings. An advertiser could spam 10,000 recipients for under $100 versus several thousand dollars for a postal mailing.
How do spammers find you? Sometimes they may buy your address -- 15 million email addresses can be purchased for as little as $129 -- or they obtain them by using software programs known as "harvesters" that pluck names from websites, newsgroups, or other services in which users identify themselves by email address.
To protect against harvesters of email addresses, some websites use software that "poisons" the harvester -- for example, generating bogus email addresses or directing the harvester to a nonexistent site. The use of poisoners, filters, and blocking software can be costly and creates an escalating cat and mouse game as spammers attempt to circumvent each new round of anti-spam software.
The Problem With Spamming
Defenders of spam claim that it is little different from junk mail and can, in fact, be tossed more easily: simply hit the delete key. Although there is some truth to this position, receiving spam is actually more like receiving a junk fax or a sales call on a cellular phone because the cost of distributing the advertisement is borne by the recipient (or the recipient's ISP), not the sender. (The annual cost of spam to U.S. corporations is currently $9 to $10 billion a year.)
|
