What’s the point in spending hours preparing a newsletter, message or report if it’s automatically filtered into the junk folder before the recipient even sees it?
Spam threatens to choke the communication channels promising global freedom of expression.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs), corporate server administrators and end users are increasingly using new anti-spam technology to try to stem the relentless tide of junk email flooding the Net.
The problem is: how can we prevent the dolphins from being caught along with the sharks?
The origin of ‘spam’
SPAM is a pink canned luncheon meat immortalised in Monty Python’s spam-loving Vikings sketch.
In an Internet context, lowercase spam refers to unsolicited commercial or bulk email (such as get-rich-quick schemes, miracle cures, weight loss, Viagra, lotteries, loans, pornography and Nigerian sob stories) and allegedly originated in a MUD/MUSH community.
Of more practical use is the origin of the actual spam mail itself.
Where does all the junk come from?
In the mid-90s, Usenet newsgroups (also called “discussion groups” or “bulletin boards”) were the number one source of email addresses for spammers.
Today, the most common origin is web pages, especially if they’re listed in a search engine or directory.
Some people have tried foiling address-seeking spambots by inserting the word