What is spam?
Believe it or not, the answer you get when asking what spam is will vary depending on who you ask. To some, it is ANY email they receive that they don’t want, regardless of whether they signed-up (or opted-in) to receive it or not.
Others will say that spam can only be defined as unsolicited, commercial email which does not adhere strictly to the specific requirements of the CAN-Spam Act of 2003.
In fact, there are many different types and categories of spam. So another way to answer the question, what is spam? would be to define spam in its various forms as it appears in our collective inbox.
What is spam?
(Phishing Fraud Email)
Phishing fraud email spam attempts to fool email recipients into thinking that the message came from somebody else (i.e. a known company, brand, bank or financial institution). Phishing spam is sent to trick recipients into visiting a website and provide financial information such as a credit card number or other sensitive data. This spam is cleverly disguised and at first glance actually appear to be from the institution that they are masking. This type of spam is fraudulent, mis-representative and potentially damaging to the recipient.
What is spam?
(Emotional Scam Email)
This type of spam attempts to trick email recipients by playing on their emotions. This is done primarily in two ways; either by raising the hopes of the recipient with suggestions of monetary winnings (i.e. lottery or International Money Transfer scams) or by playing on their sentimental nature (illness, romance, etc.). A good example of this is the Microsoft Global Email Lottery Spam.
Emotional Scam email spam is meant to evoke an emotional response in the recipient and entice them to take action and eventually send money to the spammer either to “claim a prize” or to provide relief to the sender who is supposedly suffering somehow. These fraudulent scam emails might seem obvious to some; but they fool enough people to make it worthwhile for spammers to continue sending them.
What is spam?
(Virus and Malware Email)
This type of email spam will include an attachment or a link to a file that will trigger some virus of malware to install to the recipients computer when the attachment is opened or the link visited. Sometimes they are sent automatically from one computer to others using scripts in the virus that cause the recipient computer to forward it on to other people in their address book without the recipient’s knowledge.
Because these emails appear to be coming from someone that you know, they make recipients vulnerable. The objective of virus spam is to spread computer viruses across networks via email.
What is spam?
(Viagra, Replica Watch, Stock and Weight Loss Email)
This type of spam is very common. Most of us are inundated with emails encouraging us to purchase prescription medications, replica watches or stock of some kind. This type of spam doesn’t pretend to be anything but an unsolicited attempt to get people to click – and people do (one in every 12,500,000 spam messages that are sent!) – that’s why we keep getting it.
The objective of Viagra, Replica Watches, Stock and Weight Loss spam is to market products and services to a large audience in hopes of getting a percentage of the millions who receive it to click and convert. Stock spam has a secondary objective in that they try to drive a stock’s price up and then the sender sells it off shortly after the stock climbs as a result.
This type of spam burdens computer resources and networks. As a result, it costs companies and individuals time, productivity and money for anti-spam technology required to reduce it.
What is Spam?
(Nonsensical Email)
Nonsensical email spam includes those email spam messages that many people receive which don’t appear to have any rationale whatsoever. They aren’t trying to sell us anything. They do not contain viruses or malware. They don’t try so promote websites or defraud us in any way. The objective of nonsensical spam is simply to test anti-spam and content filters so that spammers can more successfully deliver future messages.
What is spam?
(Unsolicited Commercial Email)
Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) spam can be defined as those unsolicited promotional email messages sent from actual businesses who are trying to spread the news and generate sales for their products and services via email to people who did not sign up directly to receive email from them.
Unsolicited Commercial Email spam might be sent to a list of email addresses harvested from the Internet, acquired from a co-registration form or a list that was rented or purchased from a third-party. Unsolicited Commercial Email spam is the least threatening and generally comes from actual businesses who simply want to promote their products and services to what they think might be a relevant audience. It is not malicious in nature and is technically legal but does not embrace the best practices of permission-based, opt-in email marketing.
So there you go. What is spam? Spam can be so many things.
Do you want to know how much money a spammer makes and how many Viagra emails have to be sent before one converts into a sale? Read more about spam statistics, the worst spam offenders, most spamming countries and average spam conversion rates.
For more information about spam and how it affects legitimate senders of email, read Understanding Spam, Email Reputation and Recipient Behavior.
Finally, to avoid antispam content filters, learn what words to avoid in email subject lines.
Interested? Stay classy. Send legitimate opt-in email newsletter and marketing campaigns with GroupMail!