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"SPAM" is electronic junk mail or junk newsgroup postings. Some people define spam even more generally as any unsolicited e-mail. However, if a long-lost brother finds your e-mail address and sends you a message, this could hardly be called spam, even though it is unsolicited. Real spam is generally email, advertising for some product, sent to a mailing list or newsgroup.
In addition to wasting people's time with unwanted email, "SPAM" also consumes a considerable amount of network bandwidth. Consequently, there are many organizations, as well as individuals, who have taken it upon themselves to fight spam with a variety of techniques. But, because the Internet is public, there is really little that can be done to prevent spam, just as it is impossible to prevent junk mail. However, some private online service, such as AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, and many others have instituted policies to prevent spammers from spamming their subscribers. |
