A Brief History and Summary of the Online Entity Known as SPAM

Spam is an advertising phenomenon that has become a huge nuisance in our modern online world. Unsolicited and unwanted messages fill our mailboxes everyday, and many members of the global online community try to avoid the wave of Spam coming at them while surfing the internet. Many people use filters and other software to attempt to prevent incoming Spam, but businesses and Spammers are constantly innovating new ways to bombard your computer with their propaganda. Spam can sometimes become offensive in nature, such as unwanted pornography advertisements being sent to young children's e-mail addresses. Spam has become a legal issue along with just being plain annoying, and illegal and indecent Spam is a serious topic being debated in today's courts and attorney's offices, and the law is constantly adapting to protect the online citizen from Spam (Mueller).

Spammers have figured out many different ways to hit possible consumers with Spam mail and messaging in order to maximize their advertising. The most common kind of Spam that we all experience daily is e-mail Spam. Large servers or "spambots" send blanket e-mails to huge numbers of people without their permission, or e-mail viruses infect personal computers and force them to send out Spam e-mails. Spam through America Online's Instant Messenger is known sometimes as "Spim," short for spam in IMs. This type of Spam is sent to thousands of screen names that can be easily found in any online directory. Newsgroup Spam is when an unrelated message is posted on an internet site that has nothing to do with the topic, such as people posting unrelated advertisements on facebook group walls. A non internet related form of Spam that is beginning to be used is text message spam. This is sent directly to mobile phones by spammers and is paid for by the cell phone owner (Wikipedia). All forms of Spam are unwanted and unauthorized, which is the major problem for recipients.

As Spammers search for new ways to beat both Internet Service Provider's defenses and the software people can install to prevent Spam, the problem of privacy and its invasion becomes more serious. Virus Spam can crash entire system infrastructures, ruin personal computers, and tie up valuable bandwidth. Spam can also expose young children to graphic pornographic terms and or pictures, violent images, and material generally unsuitable for younger viewers. Protecting kids from this type of unwanted Spam is a high priority for those opposing Spam. Overall Spam is just annoying, can force denial of service, and is a hassle for the everyday person. The problem of Spam may have at first seemed insignificant, but it is becoming more severe as the internet grows in popularity and importance.

Those opposing Spam have begun to fight back with various forms of Spam self defense. Both businesses and consumers have the same means of managing spam. Some of the simpler means are such things as filters, which have the ability to block e-mail from certain specified addresses. Also, ISP's can completely block email from its entire system, while allowing their members to create their own lists of emails to block.

There are also services which provide lists of spammers who should be blocked. The Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS) is a perfect example. This service provides its members the names of multiple different spammers who should be blocked. This system has many different individual members, businesses, and ISP's who receive these lists. Plus, services such as MAPS included different ISP's and Microsoft Network on the list, because these groups don't take the necessary actions to stop their members from sending out spam. These companies then, in turn, take action. For example, one company limited the number of outgoing emails a person can send, in order to prevent mass spamming (Baase, 223).

Recently an entire service industry has emerged to protect businesses, schools and individuals from Spam. The company Red Condor offers "Messaging Assurance" assistance, which involves preventing questionable material such as Spam and other e-mail viruses from reaching subscribers computers. The fact that entire groups have formed to combat Spam, and that people are paying these groups good money to do the task, proves how big of a problem Spam truly is. People will pay to be defended from outside Spammers, and companies such as Red Condor realized that specializing in Spam defense is a profitable enterprise (Red Condor).

Maybe the strongest defense against Spam is the CAN - Spam Act of 2003, which was made a law on December 16th, 2003 by President George W. Bush. The CAN Spam Act, or Controlling the Assault of Non- Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, took effect January 1st of 2004 and was designed to crack down on unsolicited Spam in a variety of ways. It first mandates that Spam be labeled clearly and not with false, misleading, or deceptive subject headers. This at least gives the receiver an honest chance to know what they are being sent. The CAN -Spam act also requires all Spam to include an opt-out option which would exempt the receiver from ever getting any more Spam if they so choose. It also gave the Federal Trade Commission the ability to create a "do not email" list similar to the "do not call list" for telephone solicitation (Sorkin). Fighting Spam is an ever changing battle and new methods and Spam and prevention are being discovered all the time.

Stopping Spam is the responsibility of many people and various different parties. Internet Service Providers and online networks such as America Online should shoulder some of the task by providing their customers with options such as being able to register in an anti Spam version of the program if they so choose. The government has also stepped in as a major defender against Spam, and the Senate and House of Representatives have enacted legislation such as the CAN Spam Act to control the flow of Spam. Various other court rulings have also helped to curb the Spam craze. In the end, however, it is up to each and every individual to make conscious online decisions to prevent Spam from reaching their own computer. Not visiting unreliable or sketchy websites is always a good idea, and online citizens should be extremely careful about who they give their e-mail address to or where they register to be a member at, as some of the seedier sites sell lists of e-mail addresses or simply do not have enough security to protect their confidentiality. Being wary online is every person's responsibility, so in the end it is up to you to prevent Spam.

Works Cited

Baase,Sara. (2003). A Gift of Fire. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2003.

David E. Sorkin, Spam Laws, ). C. 1999-2006

Red Condor, Inc. < http://www.redcondor.com/welcome.html> Santa Rosa, CA.

Wkipedia.org, "SPAM." www.wikipedia.org C. 2006

Mueller, Scott Hazen. "What is Spam?." Fighting Spam on the Internet, < http://spam.abuse.net/> C. 1996