To Spam or Not To Spam: Is That A Viable Question?

To Spam or Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems
to send unsolicited bulk messages, which are generally
undesired. The most widely recognized form of spam is Email
Spam: otherwise referred to as Unsolicited Bulk Email or Junk
email. Email Spam is both unsolicited by the recipient and sent
in substantially identical form to many recipients
simultaneously or over a period of time. Spam or Junk email can
be either commercial mail such as an advertisement or
noncommercial such as a chain letter or a joke.

The origin of the term "spam" is rather interesting as it
actually came into being long before email reached it's current
popular form. As you know, spam is a form of canned meat sold by
Hormel. The term "email spam" actually originated from a Monty
Python sketch. During the 25th show of Monty Python's Flying
Circus, a three and a half minute sketch was played. The scene
was set in a restaurant referred to as the Green Midget Cafe in
Bromley and centered around a disagreement between a waitress
and a customer. Almost every menu item had spam as one of the
main ingredients. The customer did not want anything with spam
in it: thus, an argument ensued that repeated the word spam some
132 times.

The menu is shown below so you will appreciate the humor aimed
at Hormel's now famous spam.

Egg and bacon Egg, sausage and bacon Egg and spam Egg, bacon and
spam Egg, bacon, sausage and spam Spam, bacon, sausage and spam
Spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam Spam, spam, spam, egg, and
spam Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam,
spam, spam and spam Lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a
Mornay sauce garnished with truffle paté, brandy and with a
fried egg on top and spam Spam, sausage, spam, spam, spam,
bacon, spam, tomato and spam (this is only in the radio
version's menu, but the TV version features the Hungarian trying
to order it)

The phenomenon, some years later, of marketers drowning out
discourse by flooding Usenet newsgroups and individuals' email
with junk email advertising messages was named spamming,
recounting the repetitive and unwanted presence of Spam in the
sketch.

There are several types of spam in use by spammers all over the
world. Not one single country or location can claim fame to
control the wide use of spam. According to Sophos, a security
software developer, the major sources of spam from April to June
of 2006 were the United States (accounting for 23.3% of messages
sent), while China accounted for 20.0% and 7.5% from South
Korea. By continent, Asia leads the pack at 40% followed by
Europe at 27% and then comes the USA at 26%.

And according to information compiled by Spam-Filter-Review.com,
email spam can be broken down by category. Products leads the
way with 25%, then Financial scams at 20%, Adult-19%, Scams in
General-9%,Health-7%, Internet-7%, Leisure-6%, Spiritual-4% and
all other amounted to 3%. My personal experience is that I
receive on average of 5-6 Financial scams daily and sometimes
more. Fortunately for me my ISP spam filters eliminate the
majority of the hundreds of spam emails daily before they reach
my Outlook in-box.

Spam violates the AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) of almost every
ISP (Internet Service Provider). If you are considering a bulk
email campaign, be aware that you are putting yourself in
jeopardy of loosing you ISP account as most will enforce their
AUP. And all it takes in most cases is just one complaint from a
disgruntled spam recipient.

The quantity of spam is staggering. Sometimes it depends on who
you are but Bill Gates receives 4 million emails a year and most
all of them are spam. And then the guy who owns acme.com
receives over one million spam emails per day. In the year 2005,
30 billion spam emails were sent every day, 2006 it grew to 55
billion, 2006 it jumped again to 85 billion pre day and in
February of 2007 it is shown to continue it's growth to more
then 90 billion spam emails per day. It is speculated that over
90% of all emails sent are spam emails!

Although spam laws are being passed in most major countries, it
is obvious that another deterrent needs to be developed.
Countries taking affirmative legal action by passing anti-spam
laws include:

-The Untied States-CAN_SPAM Act of 2003 -Australia-The Spam Act
of 2003 -The European Union-Directive-Article 13- The member
countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta,
Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden,
and the United Kingdom.

Even though there is a concerted effort throughout the world to
curb spamming, legislative efforts have been for the most part
ineffective and counter productive. As an example the CAN-SPAM
Act of 2003 requires that each email have a way for the
recipient to opt-out of the senders list. Most believe that if
you opt-out to a spam email, you are doing nothing more then
confirming to the spammers that they have reached a working
email address. In 2002, the Center for Democracy and Technology
found that 16% of websites tested with opt-out requests
continued to spam.

To Spam or Not to Spam: well, you be the judge for yourself. The
biggest concern I think one should have is loosing their ISP
accounts. I have heard of spammers just going form one to
another or having multiple ISP accounts to insure that they will
maintain up time.

Hope you didn't find this too long but the more research I did
for this article, the more practical information I found to
include for your reading pleasure.

About the author:
Jimmy Oakley-Author-2007- Jimmy is an Internet Marketer that
discount markets the Premier Email Marketing and Internet
Marketing Courses online. The courses he markets are continuosly
updated and never outdated. Learn the right ways of marketing on
the Internet by visiting
http://www.makeyourlivingonlinetraining.com now and learn
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