So What Exactly is SPAM? A Brief Overview

What really is the annoying thing called SPAM?

• Spam is unsolicited e-mail (electronic junk mail) that advertises goods and services
• Most spam mass mailings are advertising pornography, get-rich-quick schemes, miracle cures, and lottery winnings

How do we get rid of SPAM?

• Spam filters have been created to block out spam, yet the spammers now include "nonprinting" characters in the subject line and email address to trick the filters into letting them pass.  I personally have a spam filter on my Yahoo account-I receive probably 200 spam emails into my JUNK folder, and about 15 per day make it into my regular email folder.  Highly annoying
  
• Here's a trick the spammers use: they will send you an e-mail asking you to join a do-not-spam list if you reply.  What it really does is send you to a list of e-mails to spam.  So, think twice!

How much SPAM is really out there in the World Wide Web?

• 70 percent of e-mails in 2004 was SPAM.  June and July of 2004-over 85 percent
• One individual spammer can send out over 80 million spam emails per day
• AOL and Microsoft claim that they block ONE BILLION SPAM MESSAGES PER DAY.