SPAM

Ø What is it??

Spam is the Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) -the “junk email”-that you may receive almost every day to your email account. It includes chain letters, pyramid schemes, “get rich quick” schemes, quack health products and remedies, illegally pirated software, etc. Basically, spam includes anything you would consider to be “unwanted” in your email inbox.

Ø Why is it a problem to everyday email use?

Spam can be a problem for MANY reasons. First of all, it is simply annoying to receive so much email in your inbox, as it takes up space in your account and slows down the entire system. Spam actually costs the receivers money—we end up paying the costs for the time and energy spam takes up as it is being processed through the Internet, especially when it is passed in bulk. It actually ties up CPUs, and makes it harder and slower for email and any other Internet transactions to process. This means that Internet providers will in turn need to raise the cost for its service, which we end up paying. Also, spam is just unethical—it is a process based on theft, fraud, and deceit. It’s kind of like stealing a penny from several million people—it may be a small cost to each individual, but the stealer is reaping the unethically claimed benefits.

Ø How can you prevent spam from being sent?

It might be easier to answer this question by telling you what NOT to do to prevent spam mail. Many people believe that they only need to click on that small link that says “remove” on the spam email; however, this rarely does anything to prevent you from receiving spam mail. In fact, it can work to the spammers’ advantage in verifying your email address. Another method some people try is filtering—but this actually makes your system work harder, and also, most spammers will find a way around the filtering.

Deleting the email is the easiest thing to do, but that still has no way to prevent you from receiving any other spam mail. Also, be sure that you don’t try to strike back, as this too can cause more problems than you had in the first place. Striking back can just give the spammer more publicity, which is all they wanted in the first place, and also, to attack another network is considered illegal.

One thing that you CAN do is join CAUCE, which is a Coalition Against UCE. You can join this coalition by clicking here. Another way to help prevent spam in your personal email account, is to open a second email account on the web. You can go to any site, like Hotmail or Yahoo, and sign up for an email account. Then, when you’re online and need to use your email address for something, you can give this email address instead of your personal one. This may help a little to redirect some spam, but it won’t stop it completely.

Ø What can the government do to help?

One thing you can check into, is if your state has any laws against spam. You can find that information at the following site:

http://law.spamcon.org/us-laws/index.shtml

There are currently no U.S. national laws regulating unsolicited email, but there have been many attempts for laws to be passed.