Spam - What Is Spam?

Spam is basically just unsolicited commercial emails that companies send to your inbox.

You may have signed up for a newsletter or promotions with the one or many of the websites online, or you may have ordered a product or service that requires registration from a website first. It is common for companies to share their mailing lists with their affiliate companies. The only problem is that most companies hide this knowledge in their "terms and agreements" of their websites. They count on the fact that most people do not read all the way through them. Of course since it is mentioned somewhere in their website, it is perfectly legal to send unsolicited mail in other words spam.

The average person receives anywhere from ten to twenty spam emails a day in their inbox; depending on how many promos and registrations they fill out. Once a person accepts or opens an unsolicited email, they become plagued by receiving six more in its place. It is a vicious cycle.

As the Internet continues to spread and increase its reach among the general population, so have companies followed suit and expanded their abilities to advertise. The biggest problem is that they don't know when to stop advertising in the form of spam. Best would be for you to increase your preventive and defence measures.

Here is a list of things that you may do that will leave your inbox vulnerable to receiving spam.

1.Filling out a registration for an online newsletter is a common way for companies to use your inbox to advertise.
2. Registering your inbox for promos and contests.
3. When installing new software it is common to register your email address for updates, but it is also leaving yourself open to spam.
4. Signing yourself up for just about anything online is leaving yourself open to receiving spam.
5. Reviewing books online generally requires that you provide your email address.

One Common factor in all of these things listed is that you have to volunteer your email address to a company before it can be used for spam. Of course, there are ways for a company to get your email address without you having to give it to them directly.

How Are These Companies Getting My Email Address?

A company can give your email address to an affiliate of theirs when you give it out, but that is not the only way that a company can get your email address. These days, companies are getting smarter in their efforts to attain email addresses for use in unsolicited email marketing otherwise called spam. Here are some of the ways that companies are getting a hold on your inbox.

Personal Homepages

Just about everyone has a homepage of their own these days and you leave your contact information for people to contact you.  Spammers can easily gather all of your information by using what is called "Harvesting Software". Once you reply to spam email it confirms that your address exists and leaves you open to hundreds of spam messages.

Registration Forms

Nearly all registration forms that you fill out can lead to spam. That is why these companies ask you to fill out registration forms. Some companies leave you with the option of receiving emails and notices from them. You should always read the fine print of a registration form before you submit it.

Cookies and Temporary Internet Files

Spammers use a software program called spiders to access and harvest your email address. These spiders basically just wander around the internet and into active browsers searching for your email information. To be more specific, they are looking for the @ symbol so that they can attach themselves to email addresses.
 
Contest Entries

An alluring way for companies to get your email information is to post contests for things that you would have an interest in winning. Of course in order to enter, you must provide your email information so that they can notify you if you win.

Remembered Email Information

A common practice among the more sophisticated spam artists, is to get a good grip on those internet users that have a habit of saving their sign in information to their email addresses.

Public Posting

When signing up for one of the many free email addresses that are out there, many people decides to add themselves to the public profile list that the email provider offers. Generally, you leave your basic information and screen name. However, what you rarely notice is that you also leave your contact information as well.

These are the many ways that unscrupulous mail harvesters collect email addresses to be used in spam.