ABSTRACT
Mixed in with the great volume of e-mail business correspondence sent each day, many users receive
messages similar to the following:
† An offer to find out about new “fountain of youth” scientific discoveries that minimize the effects
of aging
† Offers to get in on great money-making schemes (usually multilevel marketing opportunities)
† An offer to save 40% on airfares
† An urgent message to stop the President from signing a certain piece of legislation
† An opportunity to participate in a pyramid scheme and make $5000 a month
† An offer to start a home-based business using a PC
† Three “newsletters” containing nothing but classified ads (mostly multilevel marketing and
get-rich-quick opportunities)
This type of e-mail is called “spam,” which refers to the sending of mass unsolicited messages-junk
e-mail-over the Internet. Spamming includes posting promotional messages to large numbers of Usenet
newsgroups. For many Internet users, unsolicited e-mail advertising is merely an annoyance, but because
many companies and organizations connect to the Internet, e-mail spam also becomes a financial and
productivity issue, especially as most bulk e-mailers sign users onto their lists without permission and
make virtually no effort to target their lists. It is not uncommon for spam lists to reach into the hundreds
of thousands or even millions of e-mail addresses.
