Spam Primer
Help with Spam, Phishing, and Other E-Mail Pests
Read the introduction next, or Get Right To It.
The Spam Primer started in 1996 as a way to help people deal with a new problem: spam. Even then, author Randy Cassingham realized spam would become a huge problem for everyone who depends on e-mail (and it has: it's estimated that about 90 percent of all e-mail traffic is spam, which makes it difficult for legitimate e-mail to get through, and to find it among all the garbage!)
If you prefer, you can go directly to any of the brief articles that outline the whole thing to you:
- What is Spam?
- Who Sends Spam?
- How Do Spammers Get Your Address?
- Ways to Keep Your Address from Spammers
- You Can't "Unsubscribe"
- (Except Under Rare Circumstances)
- Why the CAN-SPAM Law Didn't Help
- Filtering Spam from Your Mail
- How to Get Legit Mail Delivered
- Phishing and Other E-mail Scams
- Urban Legends and Chain Mails
- Executive Summary
Note: External links in any article open in a new tab or window so you don't lose your place.
About the Primer's Author
Randy Cassingham is the author and publisher of This is True, a weekly column reporting on bizarre-but-true news stories. True is one of the first e-mailed publications, so Randy clearly understands both e-mail, and the difficulties that spam causes us all. You're invited to get a free subscription to This is True -- of course, that requires verified opt-in (which you'll learn about later!)
A Note from the Primer's Author
In the grand scheme of things, who cares about your e-mail? I do. And everyone who wants the Internet to remain a cool and useful place should. It's not just because I make my living sending e-mail that people truly want. (I make absolutely sure of that by using "verified opt-in", a system which all mass e-mail publishers should use.)
I also am a serious Internet user. I'm online most of the day, most every day. I don't want garbage streaming into my mailbox, but I do want to get the mail I have asked for, or that enables me to do my job. Yet I get, or my filters block, tens of thousands of e-mails every month that I have made clear I do not want. Hundreds per day. That's not "cool and useful", that's a massive burden. And it's all because people who want to force us to read their scams, get-rich-quick schemes, and other bogus come-ons. And that's what the vast majority is: if it was a legitimate product or service, they wouldn't need to use unethical and often illegal means to pitch it, would they?
--Randy Cassingham
Author and Publisher,
This is True®
Next Page: What is Spam?