My answers to these questions are no, no, and no, but that doesn't prevent inquiries like these from jamming my email in-boxes day after day. The three queries above are copies of actual spam--unsolicited email--I've received in the last 24 hours.
Spam is, in my opinion, the scourge of the email in-box. What's spam? Loosely defined, it consists of commercial advertising or solicitations for services you'd never in your wildest dreams think of using or buying. (A word of clarification: the term spam shouldn't be applied to things you've actually signed up for, like email newsletters such as AnchorDesk, even if you get a lot of them.) Why does spam bother me so much? Aside from the obvious annoyance factor, there are actually some sound reasons not to like spam. First, it's the only form of mass marketing that the receiver pays for. Those coupons and credit-card solicitations in your real-world mailbox have postage on them that's paid for by the sender. With spam, you, the recipient, foot the bill by paying your ISP for the online time you spend reading, deleting, or otherwise dealing with the messages.
Second, spam can and does clog or crash mail servers (including the unwitting intermediary mail servers that spammers sometimes use), takes up resource time when postmasters at ISPs must deal with complaints, and can slow down or prevent email receipt and delivery.
Third, spam is generally completely useless to the recipient (when have you ever acted on an unsolicited email offer?), is often fraudulent, and can even be illegal. According to spam.abuse.net, spammed child-porn offers have already been spotted--and just the possession of such material, even if you didn't request it, could put you in violation of US law.
How do spammers find us? From lists of email addresses, which are not that tough for them to get. If you post on an Internet bulletin board or in a Usenet newsgroup, spend time in chat rooms, use an online service, or have your email address listed somewhere online, chances are you're already on a list. On top of that, spammers make use of email programs that crawl the Web looking for address or even sift through major online services like AOL, Yahoo, and Hotmail to compile lists.
So how can you reduce spam? It's not easy, but there are steps you can take. These online resources will help:
Fight Spam on the Internet!. This group has great resource pages that explain more about spam, tell you what not to do in response to spam (tips: don't threaten violence or try to hack the spammer's site), and answers frequently asked questions about where spam fits into free speech laws, censorship issues, and whether it's even legal.
Elsop's Anti-Spam Page. This site is a gold mine of information about spam and provides links to dozens of anti-spam resources. Elsop, or the Electronic Software Publishing Corporation, produces an industrial-strength link-checking and Web site-management tool called LinkScan. It doesn't look like it makes or sells anti-spam products specifically, but my hat's off to them for creating this resource page.
Beating the E-Mail Scammers. Michael A. Banks's site will show you exactly what to do about spam, from getting off lists to complaining to a spammer's ISP. My favorite feature: an explanation of how to decipher message headers from spammers who provide fake "from" and "reply-to" addresses (i.e., moneyman@yousucker.com). Run down the real domain name and IP address, and you can send a complaint to the postmaster and maybe get the spammer's account shut down. (Heh heh heh.)
Death to Spam. This no-frills site paints itself as "an objective overview of unsolicited email and the techniques available to defend your in-box." It has more detailed information about locating IP addresses, standardised responses you can send to spammers, and a cool suggestion on how to disguise your email address on a Web page by using mail forms.
Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (CAUCE). This all-volunteer organisation helps lead the fight against spam and provides the latest news about unsolicited commercial email (UCE), gives you updates about pending anti-spam legislation, and even some true spam tales that'll have you fuming in sympathy.
Anti-spam software from ZDNet. If you'd rather not do it yourself, why not let the spam-filtering duties fall to some software? This is a list of what ZDNet Downloads has to offer.
These resources will help you arm yourself against spammers and begin fighting back. And, of course, should you wish to pay your respects to the hapless lunchmeat product whose name was shanghaied to label this email onslaught phenomenon, don't forget to visit the real deal: Spam.com.
