Spam might be a modern problem, but it has a history that goes back several decades. Those that control these botnets use them to send email spam, implement click fraud campaigns and cause malicious traffic for DDoS attacks. That is why spam continues to be a big problem in the modern digital economy. Spammers expect only a small number of recipients to respond or interact with their message, but they can still swindle their way to a big payday because they can easily send their shady message to so many emails addresses in a single stroke. Simply put, few people actually fall for emails from rich but desperate Nigerian princes or from so-called pharmaceutical businesses claiming to hold the patent on a miracle lose-weight-fast pill.

The lists are used to send junk email to multiple email addresses - usually hundreds of thousands - at one time. Spammers use spambots to crawl the internet looking for email addresses that are used to create email distribution lists. The most popular spam subjects include the following:Ī common misconception is that spam is an acronym that stands for 'stupid pointless annoying malware.' The term is actually derived from a famous Monty Python Flying Circus sketch in which there are many repetitive mentions of the canned meat product Spam. Spammers try to promote and sell questionable goods, make false claims and deceive recipients into believing something that's not true. Spam emails are almost always commercial and driven by a financial motive. While spam is annoying - it can choke email inboxes if not properly filtered and regularly deleted - it can also be a threat.Įmail spam senders, or spammers, regularly alter their methods and messages to trick potential victims into downloading malware, sharing data or sending money. Most people find spam annoying but consider it an inevitable side effect of using email communication. Apart from email, spam can also be distributed via text messages or social media.

Spam can be sent by real humans, but more often, it is sent by a botnet, which is a network of computers (bots or spambots) infected with malware and controlled by a single attacking party (bot herder).

Email spam, also known as junk email, refers to unsolicited email messages, usually sent in bulk to a large list of recipients.

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