Jennifer Postal
Elective #6
SPAM
Turn on the
computer and type in the password. It's time to check your email.
After a long weekend, the last thing that you want to do is spend time deleting
unwanted email messages on a Monday morning. These messages, or SPAM, are
sent to unsuspecting email addresses; unfortunately, this is the reality
right now. It is important to know the
issues around SPAM.
Definition of SPAM
SPAM
can be defined as unsolicited junk email.
Unsolicited means that the recipient has not knowingly granted
permission for the email to be sent. It
is usually a bulk email which means that it is the same thing sent to many
unsuspecting email addresses.
Examples of SPAM
The following are examples of SPAM
that you may see in your inbox:
- Chain Letters
- Pyramid Schemes or “Get Rich Quick”
Schemes
- Offers of Phone Sex Lines and ads for
Pornographic Web Sites
- Material advertising medical remedies
and enhancement products
- And More….
What to Do?
Well,
as a result of the 1st Amendment there is not much that we as
internet users can do. The government is
trying to regulate the people that send SPAM through legislation but surveys
say that SPAM still outnumbers legitimate email.
The
following is suggestions for dealing with the problem of SPAM.
1.
Don’t
buy anything promoted in a SPAM message
2.
Don't reply to spam and have a provider or program that allows you
to bounce back spam messages. That way
the spammers will think your address is invalid
3.
Use
different email addresses for family and friends and another for everyone
else. Change your email address if you
receive too much SPAM from it. Use an
email address that is hard to guess, one with both letters and numbers in
it.
4.
If you
receive SPAM, forward it to the Federal Trade Commission so that they can help
control it.