Spam - What Is It & What Can You Do?

by
Myles Clough, MD

What is it?

Spam is named from the Monty Python song of the same name. It means meaningless, valueless, time wasting material sent to you in the hope that you will part with your hard-earned money.

It usually has a commercial aim but can be used for worthier causes such as drawing attention to a website, attracting charitable donations etc. Regardless of the aim, the annoyance of having unsolicited junk thrust at you makes it worth doing what little you can to limit the nuisance.

Spam originates when your email address finds its way onto a list of some sort. Commercial enterprises will buy lists, especially lists of names with some sort of qualification (like orthopaedic surgeons) so that they can direct their clients to people who might be thought to be receptive. The only way to reduce spam is to remove your name from these lists - a nearly hopeless task. The best you can do is reduce the chances that you will get on new lists.

What you can do?

To avoid getting your name on spammers' lists completely is impossible. If you sign up on a mailing list that list will be reviewed by spammers. However, in a mailing list you can:

• keep the list members' addresses private
• remove any spammers from the list
• impose filters on the list

Further words of advice:

• Never reply to spam
  • some spammers offer to "take you off the list" if you respond. All that actually happens is that they confirm that the address is "live"
• Reduce cookies on your browser
  • Cookies are invisible tags attached to your browser which signal which websites you have visited. They can be "read" by some of the sites you visit which thereby gain an idea of your interests. In Windows visit the folder c:\Windows\Cookies to see how many you have accumulated.