Spam

From Saferpedia

Spam or UBE - Unsolicited Bulk E-mail is the process of sending unsolicited e-mails most often with commercial character. Spam is distinguished by its aggressive and repeated nature and by deprivation of the right of option.

The term of spam appeared for thew first time on USENET discussions group and was referring to EMP (Excessive Multi Posting) and ECP (Excessive Cross Posting). Today is used to describe UBE(Unsolicited Bulk E-mail) and UCE(Unsolicited Commercial E-mail).

The name of SPAM is derived from a humorous sketch of the British Group Monty Python. The action is presented in a cafe where everything on the menu included SPAM, a type of pork salami. While a client was asking the chef if he had something without SPAM, the chef spreads out the menu full of SPAM again. In the end a vikings choir join in singing "SPAM, SPAM, wonderful SPAM, glorious SPAM" covering the entire conversation.

Legal details about spam can be found in Law no. 506 from November 17, 2004 regarding personal data processing and private life protection within electronic communication sector (Article 12).

Spammers - people who practice spam - usually collect e-mail addresses from chat rooms, sites, client lists, news groups and viruses.

Spam covers almost 78% from all sent e-mails.

Description

Spamming is a very cheap method to advertise something over the Internet. The success of the campaign is usually proportional with the number of receivers.

Spam means storage space on e-mail servers, additional internal traffic to deliver them and receivers' time to read them. In average each users may lose even 50 minutes a day to sort, check and delete unsolicited messages. So spam causes in the world damage worth of 81.2 billion dollars each year.

In Romania, where are over 13 millions Internet users, spam caused damage worth about 270 millions of dollars each year, according to data supplied by the Ministry of Communications and Informational Society.