What is or Constitutes A Spam Email

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Spam emails are emails that are essentially junk emails. They have no real purpose, other than to amuse the spammers who send them and to cause frustration and annoyance to people who receive them.

It is estimated that worldwide around 100 billion spam messages are sent everyday. This causes people to waste time by opening up spam, only to find that it is of no relevance to them and it can potentially slow down internet traffic. If we could get rid of 100 billion messages being sent everyday, it is likely that we would all find that the internet was just that little bit quicker. Dealing with spam emails also costs organisations money, since a business has to pay people to deal with emails and many have to deal with spam emails, which costs that organisation money in terms of staff costs and lost productivity when dealing with the unwanted emails.

When the internet was originally launched, no one had any idea of the real potential for success. Consequently there was little regulation in terms of what went on the internet, indeed, to a large extent, there is still very little regulation in most countries.

However, this was viewed as a golden opportunity by spammers, who realised that they could send out block emails, with details of products or just with meaningless messages. Sometimes the spammers use software that simply takes a guess at email addresses, but sometimes the emails are generated as a result of a virus. Some companies even sell email addresses and then spammers use these to spread their word.

Some spam is actually a front for people to try and obtain money through fraud. Spam mails will arrive that are set up to look like they came from your bank or Paypal, so that you will reply with details of your accounts. This is usually referred to as phishing. All internet users need to be aware that reputable banks and organisations such as Paypal will not ask for your account details over the internet, they already have them and there is no reason for you to provide them; so dont!

Spam can be reported to the Information Commissioners Office in the UK and many Internet Service Providers also encourage users to report spam to them. Sadly most of the legislation refers to UK produced spam and most spam received in the UK is generated outside this jurisdiction, but if enough people keep complaining then eventually the issue may be resolved!