Spam! Measure/Countermeasure

Every day you could win millions of dollars, add another four inches to your manhood (or grow one from nothing!) and yes, even help out some lost Nigerian royalty reclaim their money while sweeping in a tidy profit yourself! Unsolicited emails run the gamut from the obscure to the extravagant but they all share a common trait; they're trying to make someone money and it probably isn't you. By understanding how spammers work you'll be able to protect your inbox from these pests while saving yourself (or your company) time and money.

Spam is a term used to define unsolicited emails that are typically mailed out in bulk by commercial firms. The very nature of mass emailing makes it a very cheap and easy way to reach millions of people in a very short time, this understanding has lead to hundreds of companies jumping on the mass mail bandwagon, leaving the average net user to wade through hundreds of spam messages to get to the pictures their grandson sent them.

Spam for the masses: How spammers get their targets

Before the company (or individual) can begin advertising their product or service (or any of the millions of other uses for mass emailing) they must obtain a list of email addresses. Just like the real world there are companies that specifically deal in selling addresses to marketing firms, however unlike the real world these companies use software programs called 'bots'. These bots scour the Internet for email addresses, visiting websites, discussion forums and newsgroups to harvest (that is, transmit to their home server) the email addresses on that site.

When the advertising company has one of these lists they can begin mailing out their advertisements. These emails might have links, addresses or phone numbers where the addressee can get more information about the product or service or they might have it set up for a direct correspondence "Email Jack@companynet.com for more info!"