Spam has evolved from the early days of the usenet. Depending on who you are talking to spam can mean unsolicited commercial email, unsolicited bulk email (commercial or otherwise), unsolicited email of any type, commercial posting in a usenet newsgroup, off subject posting in a usenet newsgroup, web site announcement in a usenet newsgroup, or any message posted to several different usenet newsgroups. Some people will tell you that not all of those are spam. Some will tell you that there is no way any of those could be considered anything other than spam. In general, none of them are a good practice, so what difference does it make?
The term spam comes from the Monty Python sketch "Spam Spam Spam" in which the spam is way too abundant.
Why do companies still spam after all these years? The answer is obvious. It sometimes works. The problem is that so many people get suckered in that the companies who spam don't care that the rest of the people on the internet hate them. That's why 95% of the spam you receive is truely junk mail; Get-Rich-Quick scams (excuse me, "schemes"), sex sites, etc.
If you want to give your company a really bad name, pay Cyber Promotions to promote your site. You will have an increase in the number of visitors to your site, you may even have in increase in sales. However, you will also receive hundreds or thousands of flames. People on the internet tend to be an intolerant group. If you spam them, you can expect your 1-800 phone line to ring off the hook with people trying to waste your money. Expect your ISP to receive hundreds or even thousands of complaints about your spam. Unless your ISP is one of the few that doesn't care about complaints, expect to lose your account.
There are many ways these companies get your email address. Here are just a few:
C-Net has a great article about stopping spam.
If you would like a list of common spamming domains, check out Multimedia Marketing Group's Spam Filter List. They also provide instructions on how to use that list with Eudora.
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Copyright © 1995-1998 Carl P. E. dos Santos All rights reserved |
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