PC Security: Spam
If you've been on the Internet for at least an hour,
you have probably seen the word 'spam.' Spam in this sense is not potted
meat. It is unsolicited commercial email, better known as junk email. It
commonly mentions making money, prescription drugs, financial services, and
in many cases contains scams.
Spam is sent out by unscrupulous people with bulk email software. It annoys
most of us, but it can be extremely costly for others. It can bog servers,
and cost hours of man power to sort and get rid of it at major corporations.
This doesn't even count the computer resources that it uses on an individual
computer. While an individual user may have to delete five or six - or even
twenty spam messages a day, the average business deletes hundreds and sometimes
thousands per day.
Spam did not start in email. It actually started with postal mail. But in
terms of the Internet, it started with USENET newsgroups. These newsgroups
were established for focused topic discussions long before the days of Microsoft
Windows, when everybody did not have a PC or two in their home. It was common
then for spammers to 'cross post' their spam, meaning that they submitted
the exact same 'post' or 'spam' to various newsgroups. Cross-posting was
meant to make it easier for legitimate USENET users to reach wider audiences
with their thoughts or ideas, but spammers of course quickly learned how
to use this new technology to get their spam messages out to a wider audience
as well.
As email was becoming more and more popular, spambots were created. Spambots
crawl web sites and harvest email addresses. These email addresses are added
to the list to be spammed later. Static web sites aren't the only victims
of spambots, they also crawl newsgroups and forums.
Think about this: If a spammer has a spambot that collects a million email
addresses, and then uses a bulk sending program to send spam out to those
million people, the only thing he would have to pay for is his Internet
connection (and many spammers don't use their own connection). He may have
had to buy the spambot, and he may have had to buy the bulk sending program.
However, if just 1% of that million buy whatever it is he is spamming, that
is 10,000 sales he has made. That makes it pretty profitable for the spammer.
Internet service providers, web hosts, governments, corporations, and individuals
all have spam problems, and all work to combat spam. You can do your part
by reporting spammers to your ISP, and to their ISP, and by using spam filtering
software that is commonly included with most email clients.
 PC Security: Index
PC Security:
Internet Browsers
PC Security:
Spam
PC Security:
Stopping Spam Part 1
PC Security:
Stopping Spam Part 2
PC Security: Spam
Scams
PC Security:
Email Security and Spam
PC Security:
Email Security
PC Security:
Computer Viruses
PC Security:
Protecting Computers From Viruses
PC Security:
Worm Viruses
PC Security:
Trojan Horse Viruses
PC Security:
Rootkits
PC Security:
Removing a Virus
PC Security:
Virus Hoaxes
PC Security:
Server Viruses
PC Security:
Home Network
PC Security:
Cell Phone Viruses
PC Security:
Spyware
PC Security:
Firewalls Part 1
PC Security:
Firewalls Part 2
PC
Security: Parental Control Software
PC Security:
Malware - Spyware and Adware
PC Security:
Data Backups
PC Security:
Pop Up Windows
PC
Security: Safe Public Computer Use
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