Spam is unsolicited e-mail on the Internet. (E-mail that is wanted is sometimes referred to as
ham.) From the sender's point-of-view, spam is a form of bulk mail, often sent to a list
obtained from a spambot or
to a list obtained by companies that specialize in creating e-mail distribution lists. To the
receiver, it usually seems like junk e-mail.
Spam is roughly equivalent to unsolicited telephone marketing calls except that the user pays
for part of the message since everyone shares the cost of maintaining the Internet. Spammers
typically send a piece of e-mail to a distribution list in the millions, expecting that only a tiny
number of readers will respond to their offer. It has become a major problem for all Internet
users.
The term spam is said to derive from a famous Monty Python sketch ("Well, we have Spam, tomato
& Spam, egg & Spam, Egg, bacon & Spam...") that was current when spam first began
arriving on the Internet. SPAM is a trademarked Hormel meat product that was well-known in the U.S.
Armed Forces during World War II.
This was last updated in September 2005
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