What is Spam?

Most people realize that spam is the receipt of unwanted email, but what many don't know is that spam can come in various other forms as well. It can come through newsgroups, search engines, blogs and guestbooks, cell phones, and even instant messenger services. All types of spam serve a purpose, and all can be extremely disruptive, annoying, and malicious.

The reason spammers use the tactics they use is because it works for them financially. The only costs they incur are the ones associated with maintaining their mailing lists and maintaining an internet connection. Spammers run rampant for the most part, as noted by how many spam emails a person can expect to receive on any given day. I know that personally, a day doesn't go by where I haven't received at least 20 unwanted messages in some form or another. Nobody enjoys spam (except maybe the spammers themselves), and many countries have passed laws and regulations trying to curb it.

When it comes to the spamming of discussion forums, a spammer will join (or post as a guest, if the forum supports it) and bump really old threads or otherwise post in an off-topic manner in order to either disrupt the flow of conversation taking place there, or to advertise something. Many will utilize the forums signature feature to put a link to whatever they're selling, which is then attached to every post they make.

Obviously, spam and SPAM are two different things. The lowercase spam refers to the junk email and junk messages that have been plaguing the internet pretty much since the beginning. SPAM in uppercase refers to the Hormel food product, which by the way, is the state food of Hawaii. Hormel has made it clear that they do not have an issue with their trademarked SPAM being used to describe the epidemic of unsolicited messages, but they have stated that they would prefer that people refer to it using lowercase letters, so as to not infringe on their trademark. There have, however, been situations where Hormel has asked companies to not use the word spam, as in the case of SpamArrest and spambuster.

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Report Spam News

Report: Suspect in Custody after Auto Zone Robbery

Clifton, Colo. Shortly before 10 oclock Monday night, there was a report of a robbery at the Auto Zone in Clifton at 3201 I-70 Business Loop. According to scanner reports, the suspect had a knife.

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Alabama is #2 most-spammed state according to report

A recently released report says that Alabama remains a big target for spammers.

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Shortened URL Spam Increases

Abbreviated URLs are handy when microblogging but have become the mainstream disguise of spammers, a security firm reports. Spam - E-mail - 2000 - Comment Spam - Abuse

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Leominster's Belley sinks hole-in-one at Shaker Hills

Submitted report Leominster's Andre Belley pocketed a hole-in-one July 21 at Shaker Hills Golf Club in Harvard.

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Spam attacks to rise 30 per cent in 2010

Spam attacks will rise by a whopping 30 per cent in 2010 compared with 2009presenting a continued threat to the security of enterprise networks andcorporate information according to Cisco's 2010Midyear Security Report .

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