The Innocent Can Of Spam

"Spam is the result a lack of ethics and integrity in regards to promotional activities on the internet. It's not a question of whether or not you get caught. It's a question of maintaining your ethics and integrity while still engaging in promotion, marketing and advertising." --Richard Lowe

How the innocent can of Spam became the symbol of one of the most vilified practices on the web, we'll probably never know.  In any event, the mass sending of unsolicited emails is considered such an evil that most ISPs will take immediate action to handle spammers. Congress has even passed strict laws defining spam and suggesting punishment.

Some people claim spam got it's name from the Monty Python Spam Song and the related skit. The characters were in a restaurant which sold Spam. Everything on the menu was in one way or another related to Spam. There was Spam eggs, Spam sandwiches and so on. To make it even more annoying, whenever the waitress recited the menu a groups of Vikings would chat the word "Spam" over and over.

There is virtually nothing on the web which generates as much passion as this subject.  Spam overwhelms ISPs and web sites, fills our email boxes with garbage, and exposes our children to unwanted pornography and products.

What is Spam?

What is this thing call Spam? 

• Unsolicated emails to a mass audience. 
• Cross posting commercial email to multiple newsgroups or email lists
• Internet based telemarketing
• Sending unsolicited messages to chat and instant messaging services
• Attempting to fool search engines through massive or fraudulent submissions.

Two basic rules to follow regarding spam:

1. Everything stated by a spammer is a lie.
2. When in doubt, see rule #1.

You have to understand that you do not know who sent you the message. You have no easy way of checking the validity of the company, it's credentials, or anything else. It's just a way to get you to buy something or send money somewhere, or, occasionally, it's about something worse. Like pyramid schemes (illegal), religious rants, hate missives, or hardcore pornography.

Just to give you some more insight into what is and isn't spam, here is a list of some "definitions" for catch phrases often used by spammers (thanks to a posting on Yahoo Club AntiSpam by raving_1.

Stopping Spam

What don't you do? 

• NEVER, EVER respond to the spam (this only confirms to the spammer that your email address is real and someone is looking at the messages). Do not buy anything advertised in a spam message. DO NOT give your credit card data or any other data to a spammer, and do NOT ever ask to be removed from the spammers mailing list (it just confirms to the spammer that you are a valid email address).
• Do not directly post your email address in your web site (or any other web site). The reason for this is that many spammers use robots to scan web sites for email addresses.

What can you do?

• Purchase a product such as Spamkiller. This product an excellent tool which effectively filters out most spam messages.
• Write to your legislators to get better laws passed.
• Complain to the ISP of the spammer.

What do you do if you are an advertiser and want to get your product seen? DO NOT SPAM. If you are in doubt, then don't do it. You will drive away far more customers than you keep, and you may find yourself in legal trouble. Don't do it.

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