What is Spam

The word Spam means the sending of undesired, irrelevant, improper and unsolicited messages. This is done especially for commercial advertising in large quantities. The Internet is flooded with innumerable copies of the same message. These messages are forced on to people who would otherwise not have received it. The products that are advertised by these Spam mails are usually dubious consisting mainly of semi – legal services or schemes with which to make easy money.

Different search engines also resort to spamming to gain higher listings of the web sites. This is done by submitting the same pages or key words over and over again in one web document.

The origin of this term is a much-debated fact. It is said to be a part of a very famous song. But the University of South California is said to have given the name as it has the same qualities of the lunchmeat that is known as Spam. Both bear the same characteristics as nobody wants it and it is removed when anyone receives it.

There are two types of Spam and these have different effects on the users. One type is known, as the Cancellable Usenet Spam is one message that is being sent to many Usenet newsgroups. There might be even more than 20 Newsgroups. These users have realized with experience that these messages are not of any use at all. This variety of Spam is usually aimed at people who are known as “lurkers”. They read the newsgroups but never post any messages that would give away their email addresses. This type of Spam takes away the utility of the newsgroups as most of the time they are being bombarded by unrequired, irrelevant posts and advertisements. Moreover this type of Spam undermines the capability of the system administrators to manage and choose the topics that would like to have on their systems.

Email Spam is another type and individual mail users who receive their mail directly are the targets of this type of Spam. This Spam is created by scanning the postings done on the Usenet. The Internet mailing lists are stolen and the Web is searched for more addresses. This Spam requires the money of the users to be read or received. Moreover this Spam requires additional costs that are to be borne by the user. The ISPs and the online service providers charge the subscriber to transmit this type of Spam. Email Spam has another very nasty variant. Spam is sent to the various mailing lists, which might be the private or public discussion forums. Mailing lists limits the activity of the subscribers and the spammers will use certain tools that are automated to subscribe to the innumerable mailing lists. These lists will provide them with the names and addresses, as they would be made subject to the attacks of the Spam mails.

Spam or junk mails is a nuisance because it devours a lot of network bandwidth. Nothing of significant value can be done to prevent Spam in the same way as it impossible to stop the junk mails from littering your inbox. Though we can use the Spam filter software to remove the Spam that comes via e-mail.