Internet Basics: SPAM is Like a Mosquito in Your Bedroom at Night

Ever have a mosquito in your bedroom at night? Oh, man. There you are, nice and happy, about to fall asleep when, zzzzzzz, there’s this irritating buzzing in your ear. You whack at the source. The zzzzzzz stops. You got it. Good.

But wait a few minutes and, zzzzzzz, there it is again. You take another swipe, then another. Maybe you even jump out of bed and flick on the lights. But you can’t find that crazy mosquito. Or maybe you do find it, and gladly squish it.

Then you go back to bed and are almost asleep when, zzzzzzz. Yes, another mosquito. Who invited these things to the party? Didn’t you put screens on the windows to stop this very thing? Can’t the mayor do something about it?

That’s what SPAM is like.

SPAM is when someone sends one email to a whole bunch of people who were minding their own business and didn’t ask to receive the email. Suddenly it appears in your Inbox, uninvited and rather annoying.

So how do you stop it? Simple, delete the email. But then you get another one from the same spammer. You might try to tell them to take you off their list. And they might actually take you off their list (or not). You might try to block their emails so you just don’t get them in your Inbox. But even if that works, another spammer will find your email address somehow and start sending you other SPAM emails.

Tired of all the unsolicited emails, you might get serious and get anti-spam software (it might even come with your anti-virus software). And that might stop most of the SPAM. But why can’t SPAM be stopped all together?

Well, the mayor might not be able to do anything about stopping SPAM, but the US Government is taking it seriously. In 2004, their CAN-SPAM Act became law, dealing with email “whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site.” --quoted from http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm

And that’s why SPAM is like a mosquito in your bedroom at night.