That Darn Spam

Most everyone who has an e-mail address has experienced the never ending parade of unsolicited bulk messages, also known as spam. Spamming is commonly used by advertisers because for one thing there are no operating costs, and another big reason is because it is hard to hold these spammers accountable for their mass mailings. Although the most common form of spam is e-mail spam, there are many other forms used on the internet. Other forms of spam are instant messaging, chat room spam,and newsgroup spam.

I know I have experienced spam first-hand through Myspace where the spammers make a fake sign-in so they could get your e-mail and password, then they sign on to your account and send spam to all of your friends. Then once you find out you have been sending these weird messages to all you friends, you have to change your password to get rid of it. Although most spam is found on the internet, there is also mobile phone spam where the advertisers use text messaging. Spamming is not always used for advertising purposes. Some use spam for their own political or religious purposes.

According to Sophos labs during the third quarter of 2007, 28.4% of spam all over the world comes from the U.S.. South Korea was in second with 5.2%. I honestly wasn't surprised to find that we were at the top of the list, and by such a large margin. Last year the California Legislature found that spam cost the U.S. organizations $13 billion! This cost was based on additional equipment, lost productivity,software, and the extra manpower needed to control the problem. Everyone needs to do their part to get rid of this nasty problem. If you receive a spam e-mail, make sure you delete it and don't think twice about it. Hopefully we can take care of this problem before it gets any worse.





"Spam (electronic)." Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Received February 2, 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam