Spamming

Spamming is the practice of sending multiple unsolicited messages to large groups of people. These messages, often called spam, are typically used for commercial advertising or non-commercial proselytizing. Some spam is sent for prohibited purposes, such as phishing, which is an attempt to trick people into giving up private information. A person who creates these messages is known as a spammer. While email is the most common form, spamming occurs across many different digital platforms.

Spamming remains an economically viable tactic because it is very inexpensive for the sender. Spammers face almost no operating costs beyond managing their mailing lists, servers, and domain names. They also manage their own IP ranges to send these messages. While the sender saves money, the costs are shifted to others. The public and Internet service providers must bear the burden of lost productivity and fraud. Service providers often have to add extra capacity to their systems just to cope with the massive volume of incoming junk.

The term "spam" comes from a 1970 comedy sketch by the BBC group Monty Python. In the sketch, a waitress reads a menu where nearly every dish contains a canned meat called Spam. As she speaks, a group of Vikings sings the word "Spam" repeatedly and loudly. This repetitive noise drowns out all other conversation in the cafe. In the 1980s, computer users adopted the name to describe people who flooded chat rooms. These users would repeat words many times to scroll other people's text off the screen.

Mass unsolicited messaging has a long history that predates the modern Internet. In May 1864, a British politician received an unsolicited commercial telegram from a dentist. The first documented digital spam occurred on May 3, 1978, on the ARPANET system. A man named Gary Thuerk sent a single mass email to 393 recipients to advertise Digital Equipment Corporation computers. Later, in 1994, lawyers Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel used Usenet to advertise immigration law services. This specific event became known as the "Green Card spam." By 1999, a hacker named Khan C. Smith began commercializing the bulk email industry using illegally hacked access.

Spam appears in many different forms depending on the technology being used. Email spam, or unsolicited bulk email (UBE), was a major problem when the Internet opened for commercial use. By 2007, it was estimated that spam made up 80% to 85% of all email traffic. Instant messaging spam also exists, with 500 million spam IMs sent in 2003 alone. On Usenet, spam involves excessive multiple posting of the same message. Forum spam often uses automated "spambots" to post links to external websites. These bots aim to increase search engine visibility for sites involving gambling, loans, or pharmaceuticals.

Social media and mobile devices have also become targets for spammers. On Facebook and Twitter, spammers may hack accounts to send false links to your friends. They might also follow verified accounts to gain credibility. Mobile phone spam involves sending unwanted text messages, which can cost users extra fees. Some spammers even use browser push notifications to reach mobile users. On video sites like YouTube, spam videos may use misleading titles. A video might claim a film has been deleted to trick users into clicking a link in the description.

Spamming is a complex issue that connects technology, law, and economics. Many jurisdictions have passed legislation to try to control these mass mailings. Security systems and service providers also work to reduce the volume of junk messages. For example, a 2014 report showed that spam volume had dropped to about 66% of all email traffic. Despite these efforts, the industry of "email address harvesting" continues to grow. This involves collecting and selling databases of email addresses to be used for further mass messaging.