What is Electronic Spam?

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The use of an electronic messaging system to send unsolicited bulk message is known as spam. This includes most broadcast media and digital delivery systems‘-mail spam is the most widely recognized form of spam. There are other forms of media that are abused as well. This may include instant messaging spam, web search engine spam, and several others.

It is cost effective for the advertiser to use spamming methods because there are no operating costs to do this other then managing their mailing lists. It is hard to hold the sender of spam accountable for these mass mailings. This is why there are so many spammers and the amount of their unsolicited mail is very high. The public and internet service providers are the ones that pick up the costs of spam. The costs for lost productivity and fraud. The extra capacity also has to be added in to cope with the overwhelming amount. In many jurisdictions spamming has been the subject.

Spam can also be used for criminal activity. A criminal will use spam to distribute viruses over the world wide web. It can also be used to spread malware or use other ways to access someone’s computer. The goal of this could be to steal a person’s identity or worse. The United States authorities arrested Robert Alan Soloway in May of 2007. He was charged on 35 counts of criminal activity. His charges included fraud by mail, email, wire. He was also charged with counts of identity theft and laundering of money. During the year 2003, prosecutors believed that Soloway used millions of computers that were connected to the computer and had been already hacked to distribute his spam. This was one of the first instances in history that the United States prosecutors had to make an arrest of someone for taking over someone’s domain name using identity theft laws.

Spam: Where Does it Come From?

The email messages asking for money to be sent to Africa or the United Kingdom. Those messages asking you to invest in the latest programs and products. They are all a part of the never ending problem on the Internet known as spam messages.

It seems that spam no matter how many filters a person uses or how secret they keep their email address will always be a problem. Although this is a growing problem with many people, many people do not know where the spam originates from.

Over 50% of the spam messages that are sent to users all over the world originate right here in the United States. The United States is responcible for over 50-60% of the spam messages that grace people’s inboxes everyday.

Although the United States has recently enacted a CAN-SPAM Act that outlines guidelines for senders of spam and promises to prosecute them in a court of law should they violate it. Many spammers get around it because of advanced technology that either sends their IP address to another country or covers up their email address and prevents them from being able to be tracked. The CAN-Spam Act did prevent some spammers from sending messages but not a lot.

Other spammers originate from other foreign countries. China, specifically the Hong Kong area is responcible for just under 20% of the spam messages that are sent. While Korea, Spain and France only make up 3% each. Japan has a few spammers but not enough to make up even 1% of the spam messages.

Russia is a nation known for its advanced technologies and abilities. At the moment Russia accounts for very little of the spam sent. However, Russia is directly responcible as it collects email addresses using zombie computers and then goes to sell that information on the black market. The going rate for a million email addresses to a spammer is just under $50 US dollars.

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