/ How is spam different from advertising?

How is spam different from advertising?

Kat Delong At first glance, most spam looks a lot like the advertising that fills our inboxes from our banks, clothing stores and political parties. The differences lie in three basic areas:

Spam is sent out in bulk. Advertisements from legitimate retailers are usually sent to people who have already done business with the company either in person or online. Because spammers make their money on a tiny percent of recipients who respond, they send out a large amount of these unwanted emails at a time. Although there is no way to accurately count the number of email recipients, it is estimated that the average spam mailing contains over one million addresses.
Spam is anonymous. The actual sender is either concealed or intentionally masked. Many spammers make up names so that the recipients won’t know who the emails are from before they are opened. Legitimate advertisers will have their company name on the email so that you can see at a glance where the email is from.
Spam is unwanted. When you do business with an online company or order from an online store, there is often a box within that order form that you can check to ‘opt out’ of receiving further emails from that company or companies that they might give your address to. While an overwhelming amount of spam is either for goods or services that you would never be interested in, some spam can actually harm your computer if it is opened. Many spam emails contain ‘phishing’ schemes that try to obtain your personal information, spread malware that can harm your computer and those of people in your address book or simply clog up your inbox with emails that take valuable time to sort through.

Even though an email is unsolicited, it is not necessarily spam. Although you may not have knowingly signed up to get information from familiar companies, you may welcome emails that contain coupons good toward future purchases, notice of sales or free shipping offers or fundraising drives for your favorite charities. This is why you need to get spam blocking software that isn’t too aggressive, or you may miss opportunities that even though you didn’t ask for them, would be particularly welcome.

Many companies such as Paretologic and Symantec offer software with Bayesian filters that rely on distinct spam patterns so that your wanted emails will filter through, or be tagged as ‘possible spam’ for your review. Because spam can rob you of time as well as cause dramatic computer problems, having some protection in place is a necessity.