Background
One of the believed ways the word "spam" was coined was in the Spam sketch done by Monty Python's Flying Circus (found below). In the sketch, the word spam is used abundantly and the patrons of the restaurant continuously sing "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam... lovely Spam! wonderful Spam!" This in turn drowns out some of the conversation and "spams" the dialog. Others say that it is called "spam," because, just like the canned meat product, in that the unsolicited commercial e-mail is just a bunch of unneeded annoyances.
The first form of electronic spam occurred in 1978 when a message was sent out to the users of ARPANET about the availability of new computer models by Gary Thuerk of Digital Equipment Corporation. The first form of chain letters occurred in 1988 under the name "Make Money Fast." The first major commercial occurred in 1994 for immigration law services which became known as "Green Card spam." From there it continued to grow, unfortunately, for computer users.
Benefits of "spamming"
Spamming is very beneficial economically. There are no barriers to entry. There are no real costs to send spam except the management of a mailing list. All a spammer needs to get are email addresses. It is a very cheap way to create advertisements and publicity (good or bad). Think of it this way, if you sent out 100 emails for a product that cost $10 and one person purchased it. Then you just made $10 relatively easily and quickly. If this continued (1% of the recipients bought the product) think of how much money you could make after sending it out to 100,000 people.
Downsides of "spamming"
The creator of spam doesn't have too many downsides. However, the downside it does have is huge. Spammers run the risk of having legal and/or public reaction ramifications. Other than that, most of the downsides occur to the receiver of spam. The amount of spam is so high that many internet service providers (ISPs) have had to increase capacity on their networks to deal with the spam. As a receiver of spam, you will often spend your valuable time deleting annoying spam messages. Spam can be used to spread viruses, trojan horses, malware, or other forms of malicious software. It can also be used for identity theft, phishing, and fraud.
How to Stop spam?
There is no real way to stop spam completely, but there are some ways to prevent it. Thankfully many email corporations like yahoo.com and gmail.com have spam filters where most of the spam is placed into separate folders and automatically deleted after so many days to clear out your mailbox. The video below the picture will also provide a few more tips. For more information, I would suggest going to this website: How to Avoid Spam Email.
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| Some email systems, like yahoo.com, have spam filters built in. |
Another way to prevent spam is to download anti-spyware. Spyware is a small program, usually on your computer without your permission, to track your actions and send it back to the creator. Sometimes the spyware will send back your email so that it can be "spammed." Many anti-virus software programs already include anti-spyware. If your anti-virus software doesn't include anti-spyware, I would suggest downloading Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG Free Edition.
Closing Thoughts
I would just like to point out that I don't support spamming by corporations as I believe it would be ethically wrong. There seems to be no end of email spam in the future. Many people want a Do Not Spam List just like there is a Do Not Call List. The Legislature hasn't really gone forward with this idea. Oppositions of a Do Not Spam List believe this will just give spammers a new list of emails. Until tough restrictions are placed on spam, it is up to us (the users) to watch out for "lovely, wonderful spam." Sources:
Information
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/spam.htm
http://www.spamhelp.org/articles/HowDoIStopSpam.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_%28electronic%29
http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Spam
Multimedia
Monty Python's Flying Circus (Spam Sketch)
picture created using Jing and Paint
How to Avoid Spam Email Video
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