Spam

Overview Spam is usually defined as unsolicited bulk e-mail. It is the computer equivalent of junk mail, and often contains product offers and “get rich quick” schemes. Review the Wikipedia article about electronic Spam for a thorough discussion about many aspects of this type of e-mail.

Originally, “spam” referred only to a brand of lunch meat. By the late 1980’s, however, the term was in use by MUDers (multi-user dungeon game players) to refer to attacks or pranks that flooded a computer with files, or data. Why did MUDers pick the term “spam?” Most historians believe it originated from a Monty Python's Flying Circus skit. The skit takes place in a restaurant. When the customer asks what’s on the menu, a waitress reels off a menu in which just about every item contains spam:

“Well, there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg, bacon and spam; egg, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam; spam, sausage, spam, spam, spam, bacon, spam, tomato and spam; spam, spam, spam, egg and spam.”

After the Python skit, “spam” took on a meaning of something that’s annoying because it keeps repeating and repeating. You can learn more about the origins of spam at www.templetons.com and www.mailmsg.com.

The first spam e-mail can be tracked back to 1978 when Gary Thuerk used the APANET to send bulk e-mail inviting 400 West Coast techies to a demonstration of Dec's new Decsystem-20. According to an interview with Thuerk (now dubbed “the father of spam”), some people were happy to receive the invitation, others became disgruntled when the large number of addresses in the “To” field made their computers crash, and the Defense Communication Agency that ran ARPANET prohibited him from doing it again.

The spam problem Spam has become an unprecedented nuisance. Industry watchdog organizations estimate that globally up to 76% of all e-mails are spam. More than 400,000 spams are released every day, and each one can target millions of mailboxes. More than half of all spam is launched from the United States . A good place to look for the latest spam statistics is www.internetnews.com/stats where you can enter “spam” in the search box. You can also connect to www.cauce.org/index.phtml operated by CAUCE (Coaliton Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail), for a global perspective of spam and the approaches taken by different countries to control or eliminate spam.

Spam costs everyone. Individually, it costs you time to sort through your e-mail Inbox to eliminate unsolicited messages. The volume of spam traveling over the Internet also uses valuable bandwidth that could be more effectively used for e-commerce, interactive gaming, and research.

Nigerian Spam Contest One of the most ubiquitous spams is the Nigerian advance-fee fraud that promises to give you a kickback if you allow funds to be temporarily transferred to your bank account. These spams are a nuisance, but some people are having fun with them by participating in the Nigerian spam contest. Participants in the contest, collect as many unique Nigerian spam e-mail messages as they can. Winners are determined by calculating whose spams offered the highest kickback over a six-month period.  Some contestants received more than 50 Nigerian spam messages involving kickbacks exceeding $10 million!

CAN-SPAM act. In 2003, the U.S. congress passed the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, usually referred to as the CAN-SPAM Act. This act establishes stiff penalties for relaying spam through botnets or other unauthorized computers, falsifying header information to hide a message’s origins, and falsely identifying the subject of a spam message. The act requires bulk e-mail to contain a header with the accurate originating address, a from line that includes the real name of the sender, a subject line that accurately identifies the subject of the message, and a way for recipients to opt out of receiving additional messages.

The CAN-SPAM act is not without controversy.  For example, some spammers claim that the act not only allows them to spam legally but that it protects them by making it illegal to block spam. Most legal analysts do not agree with this claim, but to explore the controversy, you can link to www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=150 and www.wired.com. Some analysts are dismayed that the CAN-SPAM Act, seems to legitimize spam even while trying to control it. Many of these analysts believe that a better solution would be to the route followed by the European Union to ban all unsolicited e-mail.

Antispam software Despite legislation and penalties, we cannot expect spam to disappear. Computer owners are arming themselves against spam by installing and activating antispam software. Increasingly, this software is included in antivirus software suites, such as Norton Internet Security. Many e-mail clients also include antispam filters. For a comprehensive overview of antispam software, connect to www.download.com/Spam-Filters or www.spamfilterreview.com.

Antispam software works by following a series of rules for weeding out e-mail messages that are likely to be spam. A Wired magazine article summarizes how antispam software works.

The rules in antispam software are not perfect. They sometimes block messages from your friends and they can also let some spam through. When you first activate antispam software, you should keep your eye on the spam folder to make sure the rules are working for you. If you see that a message from one of your friends has been sent to the spam folder, you can flag that sender as “not spam.” You can also modify other rules provided by your antispam software and create rules of your own.