ABSTRACT
Most people get phone calls from telemarketers or “junk” mail, those advertisements, sweepstakes information, etc., that clog mailboxes. Well, e-mail is no different with its unwanted, unsolicited mail that comes via the Internet. As with regular mail, it seems once a person is placed on these lists, which multiply, it is very difficult to get off. Gaspar (2002) reports that spamming has become more than a nuisance; it is costing money by jamming the flow of e-mail traffic, hogging servers, and taking up staff time. According to Webster’s, the term spam is derived from a Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketch in which the word (the name of a canned meat produced by Hormel) is chanted repeatedly over the other dialogue. When two lawyers sent an e-mail to thousands of message boards in 1994, the repetitious act led some to call it “spam.” Thus spam became synonymous with unsolicited and/or unwanted e-mail (Templeton, n.d.).
