WHat is Spam

From
http://spam.abuse.net/overview/whatisspam.shtml




Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in
an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose
to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious
products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services. Spam costs
the sender very little to send -- most of the costs are paid for by the
recipient or the carriers rather than by the sender.

There are two main types of spam, and they have different effects on
Internet users. Cancellable Usenet spam is a single message sent to 20
or more Usenet newsgroups. (Through long experience, Usenet users have
found that any message posted to so many newsgroups is often not
relevant to most or all of them.) Usenet spam is aimed at "lurkers",
people who read newsgroups but rarely or never post and give their
address away. Usenet spam robs users of the utility of the newsgroups by
overwhelming them with a barrage of advertising or other irrelevant
posts. Furthermore, Usenet spam subverts the ability of system
administrators and owners to manage the topics they accept on their systems.



From http://www.viruslist.com/en/spam/info?chapter=153350526


Most people believe that spam is unsolicitied email. However, this
definition is not entirely correct and confuses some types of legitimate
business correspondence with true spam.

Spam is anonymous, unsolicited bulk email.

This is the description that is being used today in the USA and Europe
as a basis for the creation of anti-spam legislation. Let's take a
closer look at each component of the definition:

* Anonymous: real spam is sent with spoofed or harvested sender
addresses to conceal the actual sender.
* Mass mailing: real spam is sent in mass quantities. Spammers make
money from the small percentage of recipients that actually respond, so
for spam to be cost-effective, the initial mails have to be high-volume.
* Unsolicited: mailing lists, newsletters and other advertising
materials that end users have opted to receive may resemble spam but are
actually legitimate mail. In other words, the same piece of mail can be
classed as both spam and legitimate mail depending on whether or not the
user elected to receive it.

It should be highlighted that the words 'advertising' and 'commercial'
are not used to define spam.

Many spam messages are neither advertising nor any type of commercial
proposition. In additon to offering goods and services, spam mailings
can fall into the following categories:

* Political messages
* Quasi-charity appeals
* Financial scams
* Chain letters
* Fake spam being used to spread malware

Unsoliticited but legitimate messages

A legitimate commercial proposition, a charity appeal, an invitation
addressed personally to an existing recipient or a newsletter can
certainly be defined as unsolicited mail, but not as spam. Legitimate
messages may also include delivery failure messages, misdirected
messages, messages from system administrators or even messages from old
friends who have previously not corresponded with the recipient by
email. Unsolicited - yes. Unwanted - not necessarily.
How to deal with spam


H'mmm seams like people like to make their own rules, like regular
contributors saying "hay guys tell me what's wrong with my "topic"
related web site" is spam. He did not do it to multiple and off topic
groups is spam, when in fact it's not.




--
Rodney Long
SpecTastic tackle company

http://spectastictackle.com/