Spam is the slang for UCE - unsolicited commercial e-mail. In simple terms, this is commercial advertising received in your e-mail that you did not request to get.
All spam is commerical advertisement, but not all commercial advertisement is spam. This is what trips many newbies up. You may have unwittingly agreed to receive commercial advertising in your e-mail in exchange for something "free".
Commercial e-mail is an accepted form of advertising when done along the proper channels. In fact, e-mail is the most effective form of getting your message out to the public. While you cannot guarantee people will come across your web site or offer by chance, if it goes in your inbox, you have a better chance of seeing the offer.
Much like junk mail you get from the postal service, you have the choice of opening up the ad and reading it or tossing it in the garbage. To trash it by e-mail, just hit delete. Some get bent out of shape when they receive too much in the way of junk e-mail. The best thing to do is to just delete or not respond to any offer in your e-mail if it offends and/or annoys you.
Sometimes they are in the right to complain. Other times, they are not. Either way, you still have rights. Basically, you have the right to privacy and the right not to be charged to read ads you did not request.
There are cases of spam that fringe on people's rights. It happens all the time. People who pay by the minute for their ISP service or those who pay by the minute for the phone ARE victims if the e-mail is totally unwarranted. Unwarranted meaning they have never subscribed to anything, entered contests, or did anything to enter their e-mail address by agreeing (whether you know it or not) to get commercial e-mail.
Some will complain that those who are paying by the minute for service are paying a price that is higher than the cost of the one sending the e-mail. This is simply false. It costs the advertiser online time and electricity as well as time having to spend in front of the computer to keep the software running to send the e-mail. If you are charged by the minute for your online service, there is no law forcing you to open every single e-mail that crosses your inbox. It takes less than a second to delete unwanted e-mail. Anti-spam extremists will argue otherwise.
If you can't tell by now, I am against any form of extremism which imposes fascism. I am pro-capitalism and have nothing against people wanting to earn a living when they are playing by the rules. If you send me spam that does not arouse my interest in the subject line, it will be deleted. I must delete about 2000 a day!
Sometimes people scan through chat rooms, newsgroups and other public areas to harvest names. There are even many kinds of software that harvest e-mail addresses with little effort. You could simply be minding your own business surfing the 'net and have your e-mail address collected and sold. These are simply people who did not ask to get commercial e-mail.
The anti-spam lunatics who freak out at the thought of any form of advertising in the e-mail to anyone are against the idea that anyone can make a profit from their e-mail address. They are in essence, anti-captialism. To their dismay, some people actually don't mind receiving commercial e-mail since it opens the doors to products and opportunities they otherwise would not know about.
If you have subscribe to certain newsletters or e-zines on a topic you like, they may make money to cover the cost of keeping up the newsletter with content and for their time by paid advertisement. Sometimes the ads will be included in the issue or by a separate e-mail. Complaining about such things are useless since somewhere along the line you have agreed to get such e-mail. Smart companies will keep proof that you did subscribe.
If you did not realize that the price of subscription would come with ads, you can always unsubscribe.
Sometimes you may have signed up for a contest to win a prize and did not read the fine print carefully or uncheck boxes to exclude yourself from advertising. You can tediously work to get yourself off the main source of where your name originated, but you cannot guarantee your name hasn't been sold to others who will send you e-mail (the latter would be spam in most cases).
If you tell the source you no longer want to be on their list, it may take some time for them to contact all their sources. Sometimes when you sign up for a contest, you have given express permission for your name to be sold. If you get UCE from that, there isn't much you can do except ask to be removed from each one. After all, when they bought your name, you agreed for them to buy it, so they aren't truly spamming you.
Not all commercial e-mail directed at you is meant to be malicious. How you react to it can mean the difference between a pleasant and unpleasant time online.
You could overreact and be hostile to each person sending you commercial e-mails sending them hate mail in return, contacting their ISP and/or web host to get them booted out, and even with a lawsuit. Some people make a living off of waiting to sue the unintentional spammer. They threaten to sue you unless you pay them a settlement offer hoping you won't catch on that what they are doing is also illegal - extortion.
If you go off the deep end, be sure of how that person got your e-mail address. Read the e-mail carefully as most will tell you how your e-mail was acquired and how to remove your name from the list. If you agreed to receive the e-mail, there isn't much that will happen. They won't get fined, booted off their ISP or web site, and most of the time will go on their merry way. You will just be left stewing in your own venom which is totally unproductive. Fighting off this kind of e-mail is like fighting a raging forest fire with a squirt gun.
You could simply ignore all commercial e-mail by hitting the delete key if you do not recognize the e-mail address from where it is sent. This is usually the easiest way to handle things.
You can take appropriate action by following the directions on the e-mail to get yourself removed from the list. Just keep track of every e-mail address you asked to be removed from. If they e-mail you again, you have every right to raise a voice and complain.
Remember, if you subscribed or agreed to get something by e-mail, there will be instructions for removal. If you agreed to have your e-mail sold, it will be next to impossible to find the source, but legally they can send you UCE if they do the following:
1. In the subject line put the words "Advertising" or "ADV" or "Ad" to warn you that enclosed is a form of advertising.
2. Removal instructions are included. Some will say there is no need to be removed as it is a one time mailing (unless you are doing something to prompt an automated response by e-mail)- keep track of those to make sure it is not just a line.
3. Removal e-mail address must be valid as well as contact information.
If you receive any commercial e-mail that does not comply with the above AND you did not ask for it, you have been spammed.
If you are a newbie who thinks they can make a lot of money by sending your ad by bulk e-mail, just a few words of caution.
DON'T DO IT!!!
There are ways to do things correctly and chances are as a newbie you will go about it the wrong way. For correct ways to advertise free on the Internet, consult the "Free Ad" section of this site.
