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1.1 Definition of spam
What is
sense, spam is the reception of unsolicited commercial e-mail. That does not
mean that if you receive an unexpected e-mail from a friend that you have been
spammed.
Spam is designed to flood the Internet with mass mailings, attempting to reach
the largest audience possible. Most often spammers are merely trying to sell a
dubious product, such as diplomas to unaccredited universities, get-rich-quick
schemes, or discounts on prescription drugs. In a real world example, spam is
the equivalent of receiving flyers, mailers, contest entries, and other such junk
mail items routinely sent to thousands of households without the residents having
explicitly requested them. The difference, for the average spammer, is not having
to pay printing fees or postage, which makes spam infinitely less expensive than
traditional junk mail.
A very important aspect of what constitutes spam is that spam has negative
effects on those who receive it. Spam is the only form of advertising that is more
expensive for its audience than for the advertiser. It is not simply a case of getting
a few extra mail messages a day and taking a minute or two to delete them.
Spam is not targeted at any specific group or person. It is sent to everyone.
Therefore, it can be a very expensive nuisance. Consider the fact that service
providers charge for time spent accessing the Internet. If you receive five spam
messages a day, you will waste a minute or two deleting the messages. But what
if you received 50 messages a day, or 100? What if everyone in your company
received 50 messages a day? And without even considering the loss in man
hours, what about storage costs?
Advertisers pay very small sums of money to acquire huge spamming lists and
lists of e-mail addresses. These lists are gathered from various sources, often
with questionable methods, and sold to anyone who wishes to send out spam.
Advertisers then use these lists for spamming, trying to reach the broadest
audience possible.
1.2 Categorizing spam
Spam generally falls into one of 6 categories:
Advertisers trying to sell a product or service to as large an audience as
possible.
Mailings designed to cheat or mislead unsuspecting or gullible Internet mail
recipients with incredible get-rich-quick schemes.
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Lotus Domino 6 spam Survival Guide for IBM eServer
spam
? How do you know if you have been spammed? In a very broad
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