I have often heard the term, but don t really know what spam is, can you tell me

Asks marmalade

A. Spam is unsolicited e-mail.

�

Q. How do I receive spam

A. If you have ever given your email address out online e.g. filling out a form, entering a chat room etc. it could be picked up by companies that specialise in creating e-mail distribution lists and then sold on to their clients for marketing purposes.

�

Q. Is all spam junk mail

A. It depends on how you look at it - it may well be advertising something you are after - but it usually becomes a nuisance and you are continually bombarded by unsolicited email. But you may well have agreed to receive some spam without realising it - if you have registered on a website and checked a box agreeing to receive mail on particular products or interests. Spam for life or S4L is another popular term (often found in chat rooms) and refers to the possibility of always receiving spam if you subscribe to certain online services.

�

Q. How can I get rid of spam and stop it hitting my in-box all the time

A. There are several ways:

�

(a) You can contact Spam Abuse at www.spam.abuse.net and it will help you find out where your spam emails are coming from and how to contact the sender and the ISP that hosts them.

�

(b) Set up a separate email account that is different from the account you use regularly for personal use - use this account for when you fill in forms, register on sites etc. and hopefully it will be the only account hit by spam and not one you open and use every day.

�

(c) Install a spam filter in your email account - your email provider will usually have this facility built in to its programme you just have to activate it e.g. Hotmail has a junk mail filter that you have to activate that will stop all spam hitting your account and store it in a separate folder. Outlook 2000 and Eudora have similar functions that remove spam from your inbox.

�

(d) Never reply to a spam email - it tells the sender that your email account is active and they will continue to send them to you - and don't trust the line at the bottom of the email that says click here to be removed from this list - as it doesn't always work and also sends out the message that your account is active.

�

(e) Do not forward on chain letters to all your friends - as your email address will be copied onto the letter - and forwarded to lots of people/organisations you have never heard of. Some people are often worried about doing this especially if its for charity - if you are one of these people check out Break the Chain at www.breakthechain.org for more information.�

�

(f) Install software that protects your account from spam e.g. webwasher at www.webwasher.com it is free to install and not only stops spam but also cuts out those annoying pop up ads, adverts etc. Other good programs include Don't Panic at www.panicware.com and Cookie Pal at www.kburra.com

�

Q. Is there anything that governments can do to stop the nuisance of spam

A. The European Union's Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs Committee is investigating ways to combat spam, especially since a report published by the European Commission in February 2001, stated that unsolicited email costs web users �6 billion a year.

�

The EC is loathe to ban spam completely and is working to strike a balance between our right to privacy and Internet advertising interests as it believes that a complete ban on email marketing could stifle the growth of e-commerce in Europe. It favours an opt-out scheme - where you declare you do not want to receive emails when registering on a web site for example. But as there is no consensus in Europe - in the UK and France it is considered a legitimate marketing tool, while in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Italy it is illegal to send spam - it is hard for the EU to implement any actions against spam.

�

To keep all of the members of the EU happy, it is expected to vote on an opt-out scheme - where you ask the sender not to send spam or install software to prevent it - instead of an opt-in programme as outlined above. This is now being employed by most companies - but not all of them. There is a general rule that bone fide respectable companies will not bombard you with spam - so when you receive it, bin it.

�

Q. Where does the word spam come from

A. It was originally a processed meat product -known to most of us growing up and taking school dinners in the 1970s - but it is believed to have been coined to unsolicited email from a popular Monty Python sketch "Well, we have Spam, tomato & Spam, egg & Spam, Egg, bacon & Spam..."

�

If you have any other Internet & Technology related questions, please click here

�

By Karen Anderson