What is spam?
Spam is junk mail, unsolicited advertisements, postings on a board that have nothing to do with the board topic, money-making schemes, threats or abuse, and unsolicited adult content sent by email.
What is not spam?
Emails from companies you
agreed could send you email (e.g. Microsoft and Dell when you registered your new computer with Windows XP), annoying emails from people you know (e.g. your friend who feels he must send updates on his cat's hairball problem to
everyone in his address book along with a 1.4 MB wav file of the cat barfing), or a chain letter/virus warning/stock tips sent to you from a relative.
What are spammers? Spammers are people who send spam.
Are spammers bad? Yes.
- they exploit people by doing things like setting up fake collections for victims of the 9/11, providing long distance "remove" phone numbers that cost $2 per minute, running money making scams like pyramid schemes, and selling products which get billed but not delivered or are illegal (like drugs shipped from out of the country). A recent scam included a spammer sending millions of emails telling people them their PayPal account was going to be cancelled unless they updated their credit card information. When readers clicked the link provided, it took them to a cleverly designed but fake page where they gave their credit cards numbers to the spammer
- they write viruses, like the SoBig virus, which infects a computer and then uses it to send more spam or help hide the real location of the spammer's website (see PCWorld)
- they break into people's email accounts if they have simple or default passwords, and use it to send out spam (this one happened to your webmaster, Dr. Niolon)
- they send out emails to a huge list of made-up names, and simply collect the replies people send to be removed from the emailing list. Since someone sent the request to "Remove Me," the spammer knows these email addresses are real, so he puts these addresses on his preferred list and continues spamming people
- they sell their list of "interested subscribers" to companies, advertising that they can increase their business, but often the company gets in trouble with its internet service provider or loses business because the people receiving the resulting spam have no intention of supporting a company that spams
- they create a very large amount of email traffic. First is the original spam; second is the "Undeliverable Mail" error messages generated and sent somewhere when the "To" address was fake. Third is the "Remove Me" emails people send; fourth is the complaint emails people file with the internet service provider to halt the spammer. A portion of the cost for this is included in the internet service provider's fees to pay for the staff and equipment used (maybe $20 a year per internet user)
- they cost businesses more money in terms of lost revenue. Spammer often set up email accounts, spam as much as they can, and then skip out when the bill arrives. Just as with shoplifters, this cost gets passed to the consumer
- they cost businesses more money in terms of staff. AOL estimates that 80% of the email it handles is spam. It tries to block as much of this as possible, but sometimes blocks real mail by accident. On average, about 8% of legitimate mail is blocked (see News.Com). AOL pays 18 people to handle complaints from non-spammers who were blocked in error
- they cost businesses money in terms of equipment. Indiana University spent $1.2 million on a new e-mail system in 2000, expecting it would last at least until 2004, but because of the volume of spam mail they get (45% of their total mail), they have to spend another $300,000 this year to update their computer system (from a NY Times story)
- they waste everyone's time. For example, AOL was receiving 1.8 million spams from Cyber Promotions per day. If it took only 10 seconds to download, read, and delete each message, that totals about 5,000 hours per day of connect time people spent on spam (figures from
http://spam.abuse.net). For businesses, it is worse. Some estimate one of every 72 employees is wasted dealing with spam, while others look at the cost of building spam filters to prevent employees from having to waste time reading a spam mail to determine whether or not it is legit before deleting it
When caught, what do spammers do? They threaten legal action, and rant and rave about how unfairly they are being treated. This kind of posing is often the mark of a true spammer.
Is spam protected by free speech? Debatable. "I believe President Bush is doing a
good/bad/mediocre job" is an example of free speech. "I believe you should pay me $30 to
send you a get rich quick scheme" is not a political belief our founding forefathers believed
in. Nor is sending Playboy/girl subscriptions to people I
sincerely believe are sexually
repressed an example of "free speech." Further, my stating my belief about the president
doesn't cost you anything, bilk people out of their hard earned savings, or involve falsifying
my identity or purposes.
What's the difference between email spam and other forms of advertising?
Paper spammers pay for the printing and mailing of their spam, supporting the United States Postal System, but spammers pin you and your internet service provider with it. Paper advertisers can also be sued for fraud easily, while email spammers can spam and run and never get caught. Even telemarketers pay for the phone call, and are limited as they can not call you after 9PM, call your business, or send you faxes (which you pay for in ink and paper) by law. Telemarketers also have to have a "do-not-call" list.
On to
What do you do about spam?
