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A Brief Chronicle Of Unsolicited Bulk Email

In the earlier days of the Internet, spammers mainly targeted newsgroups on USENET, the on-line discussion organization. These are newsgroups that are setup as forums to talk about particular topics. As electronic messaging systems advanced, it made possible the activity of crossposting - placing the exact same message to many newsgroups and other online meeting places.

People who send Spam were quick to adopt crossposting as a tool of their business. So now, they could mail identical message to hundreds of newsgroup subscribers at the same time. Not only were they able to target a bigger audience with one posting, but they also did not have to differentiate between the pastimes and direction of the independent meeting places that they targeted. Likewise it cost them almost nothing to spam these newsgroups.

As e-mail became an more and more widespread method of communication, the spammers transferred their focus to the enormous audience it made available to them. Bulk e mailing software before long became another essential tool of their trade, as they started to utilise this application to mail unsolicited bulk email to millions and millions of involuntary recipients.

The UBE industry likewise altered obtainable Internet technology to produce the "spambot". A spambot is an automatic programme that will range the Internet, "harvesting" email addresses from newsgroup mailings and from other sites. It literally gathers thousands of e mail addresses in a single hour. These are collected into bulk sending lists with which the spammers can spam thousands of victims at one time.

The practise of mailing out unasked for, unwelcome UBE and junk notices came to be called "spam." The term is usually believed to have come from a British comedy skit by Monty Python, in which a restaurant dishes out each meal with a side of spam. As a waitress emphasizes to a couple the availability of spam with every dish, a group of Viking patrons erupt in song, singing "SPAM, SPAM, SPAM... lovely SPAM! wonderful SPAM!" in a loud refrain. In the 80's, the term was borrowed to refer to junk email and notices, and the word stuck.

The oldest, most widely recognized incident of commercialized junk e-mail dates from 1994. It involved two lawyers who spammed USENET to promote their services as immigration attorneys. They later broadened their marketing attempts to include email spam. The incident is usually spoken of as the "Green Card Spam."

This nefarious industry has since then grown by leaps and bounds. Nowadays, more than half of the trillion-plus e mails that are sent and received are junk e-mail. Originally, junk e-mail was by and large advertising-related e mail. More recently, however, an especially nasty crop of people who sent Spam have emerged, who send out their spam with nothing less than spiteful and/or illicit intent. Some send spam that holds viruses or malware. Others devise cons designed to trick you of your hard earned money. And then there are some whose focus is identity theft.

By: Leslee Russell

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Nonmalignant or malicious, commercialised or illegal - junk e mail has morphed the way we communicate electronically, and will carry on well into the future and very likely beyond. Junk Email has become a typical, albeit undesirable, fact of online living. Want to know more visit us at QuickTellpro Autoresponder Service

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