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Spam:The spread of junk EmailE-mail spam, which is also referred to as junk email, is a message (identical in structure and content) that is sent to multiple recipients who did not solicit it. The message content does not adhere to any strict structure or topic, but on average they are commercial in nature. Email spam can be very lucrative, so it comes as no surprise that is has grown in volume since the 1990's. Some reports suggest that email spam accounts for 75% of all email sent. The legality of spam varies from country to country. The United States declared email spam to be legal, but it must adhere to a set of rules. Email clients and webmail now come with spam filtering to block spam email messages. The filters have had mixed results, and they can end up blocking solicited email messages. The brunt of the cost is borne by ISPs and the operator of webmail services. Both have successfully prosecuted spammers, but collecting damages has proved problematic. The cost of email spam has been estimated to be into the hundreds of millions of pounds per year to business. In descending order, the most common topic of email spam tends to be,
Spammers create their recipient lists by using bots to harvest addresses. These bots search the World Wide Web, chat rooms and instant messaging programs to name but a few.
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