In 1970 the Monty Python comedy troupe performed a skit about the canned meat product, Spam. In the skit a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bun are trying to order breakfast, but every item on the menu contains the “mystery meat,” Spam. At the end of the skit, Mrs. Bun screams, “I hate Spam!”
This skit became a pop culture icon long before email was the way in which most people communicated. But all of us can relate to Mrs. Bun’s feelings…we all HATE SPAM.
What is Internet SPAM?
There are two types of SPAM:
1 – Email SPAM is unsolicited bulk email.
Unsolicited means you didn’t ask for it; bulk means the same email is sent to hundreds of email addresses. The objective of Spammers is to get their advertisement or message before as many people as possible, at as low a cost as possible.
2 – Comment SPAM is a newer problem that affects blogs and guest books.
Blogs have become very popular and Spammers have discovered that they can get their advertising before the public free of charge by posting to blogs or guest books. There are both manual and automated comment spam generation techniques.
Automated tools (software) search the web looking for blogs or guest book forms. Then bogus content is automatically posted to these forms or blogs. Hiring cheap labor overseas to do exactly the same thing by hand is the way that this SPAM is posted manually.
When Did Email SPAM Start?
Back in the infancy of the Internet there were “UseNet Newsgroups.” These were a combination of what we would call a forum and a safelist today. But the UseNet Newsgroups were much less organized. If users subscribed to a Newsgroup on a particular topic, the email addresses of all members of that Newsgroup were visible so that they could send RELEVANT emails to other members of the group.
Of course people soon started to send all kinds of advertising email to Newsgroup members. Just like with modern day SPAM, much of it was pornography.
UseNet members began to be thrown out of Newsgroups for sending ads. So Spammers soon started finding ways of “hiding” their real email addresses.
The same trends continued as internet users moved from communicating on NewsGroups to communicating via email.
How Bad did Email SPAM Get?
By 2002 it was estimated that between 22% and 45% of all email was SPAM. Every computer user who had an email address and an Internet connection was inundated by bulk advertising emails. Nobody was left out. Even minors (children) were inundated with sexually explicit pornographic emails.
The problem became so bad that the Congress of the United States took action. The CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) was passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by then President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, in December of 2003.
The CAN SPAM Act became law on January 1, 2004.
The Effects of the CAN-SPAM Act
There were mixed opinions about the CAN-SPAM Act before it even became law.
Some said it didn’t go far enough. Others said it went too far. And affiliate marketers were worried, wondering how they would ever survive such an intrusion on Internet advertising. (They not only survived, they thrived!)
Today opinions are still mixed.
*
Most people agree that the CAN-SPAM Act has decreased the amount of SPAM that they receive.
*
CAN-SPAM only applies to advertisers in the United States. Those who operate from other countries aren’t governed by the CAN-SPAM Act.
*
SPAM is still a big problem. Most people use SPAM filters or only allow mail to reach their inboxes from email addresses on their “white list.”
In 1970 the Monty Python comedy troupe performed a skit about the canned meat product, Spam. In the skit a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bun are trying to order breakfast, but every item on the menu contains the “mystery meat,” Spam. At the end of the skit, Mrs. Bun screams, “I hate Spam!”
This skit became a pop culture icon long before email was the way in which most people communicated. But all of us can relate to Mrs. Bun’s feelings…we all HATE SPAM.
What is Internet SPAM?
There are two types of SPAM:
1 – Email SPAM is unsolicited bulk email.
Unsolicited means you didn’t ask for it; bulk means the same email is sent to hundreds of email addresses. The objective of Spammers is to get their advertisement or message before as many people as possible, at as low a cost as possible.
2 – Comment SPAM is a newer problem that affects blogs and guest books.
Blogs have become very popular and Spammers have discovered that they can get their advertising before the public free of charge by posting to blogs or guest books. There are both manual and automated comment spam generation techniques.
Automated tools (software) search the web looking for blogs or guest book forms. Then bogus content is automatically posted to these forms or blogs. Hiring cheap labor overseas to do exactly the same thing by hand is the way that this SPAM is posted manually.
When Did Email SPAM Start?
Back in the infancy of the Internet there were “UseNet Newsgroups.” These were a combination of what we would call a forum and a safelist today. But the UseNet Newsgroups were much less organized. If users subscribed to a Newsgroup on a particular topic, the email addresses of all members of that Newsgroup were visible so that they could send RELEVANT emails to other members of the group.
Of course people soon started to send all kinds of advertising email to Newsgroup members. Just like with modern day SPAM, much of it was pornography.
UseNet members began to be thrown out of Newsgroups for sending ads. So Spammers soon started finding ways of “hiding” their real email addresses.
The same trends continued as internet users moved from communicating on NewsGroups to communicating via email.
How Bad did Email SPAM Get?
By 2002 it was estimated that between 22% and 45% of all email was SPAM. Every computer user who had an email address and an Internet connection was inundated by bulk advertising emails. Nobody was left out. Even minors (children) were inundated with sexually explicit pornographic emails.
The problem became so bad that the Congress of the United States took action. The CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) was passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by then President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, in December of 2003.
The CAN SPAM Act became law on January 1, 2004.
The Effects of the CAN-SPAM Act
There were mixed opinions about the CAN-SPAM Act before it even became law.
Some said it didn’t go far enough. Others said it went too far. And affiliate marketers were worried, wondering how they would ever survive such an intrusion on Internet advertising. (They not only survived, they thrived!)
Today opinions are still mixed.
*
Most people agree that the CAN-SPAM Act has decreased the amount of SPAM that they receive.
*
CAN-SPAM only applies to advertisers in the United States. Those who operate from other countries aren’t governed by the CAN-SPAM Act.
*
SPAM is still a big problem. Most people use SPAM filters or only allow mail to reach their inboxes from email addresses on their “white list.”