Electronic spamming is the use of electronic messaging systems to send

unsolicited bulk messages (spam), especially advertising, indiscriminately.

While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is
applied to similar abuses in other media instant messaging spam, !senet
newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online
classi"ed ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, #nternet forum spam,
$unk fa% transmissions, social spam, television advertising and "le sharing
spam. #t is named after &pam, a luncheon meat, by way of a 'onty (ython
sketch in which &pam is included in every dish.)*+
&pamming remains economically viable because advertisers have no
operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and it is
di,cult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings. -ecause the
barrier to entry is so low, spammers are numerous, and the volume of
unsolicited mail has become very high. #n the year ./**, the estimated "gure
for spam messages is around seven trillion. 0he costs, such as lost
productivity and fraud, are borne by the public and by #nternet service
providers, which have been forced to add e%tra capacity to cope with the
deluge. &pamming has been the sub$ect of legislation in many $urisdictions.
).+Email)edit+
'ain article Email spam
Email spam, also known as unsolicited bulk Email (!-E), $unk mail, or
unsolicited commercial email (!1E), is the practice of sending unwanted
email messages, fre2uently with commercial content, in large 2uantities to an
indiscriminate set of recipients. &pam in email started to become a problem
when the #nternet was opened up to the general public in the mid-*33/s. #t
grew e%ponentially over the following years, and today composes some 4/ to
456 of all the email in the world, by a 7conservative estimate7.)8+ (ressure to
make email spam illegal has been successful in some $urisdictions, but less so
in others. 0he e9orts taken by governing bodies, security systems and email
service providers seem to be helping to reduce the onslaught of email spam.
:ccording to 7./*8 #nternet &ecurity 0hreat ;eport, <olume *37 published by
&ymantec 1orporation, &pam volume dropped to ==6 of all email tra,c.)5+
&pammers take advantage of this fact, and fre2uently outsource parts of their
operations to countries where spamming will not get them into legal trouble.
#ncreasingly, email spam today is sent via 7zombie networks7, networks of
virus- or worm-infected personal computers in homes and o,ces around the
globe. 'any modern worms install a backdoor which allows the spammer to
access the computer and use it for malicious purposes. 0his complicates
attempts to control the spread of spam, as in many cases the spam does not
obviously originate from the spammer. #n >ovember .//4 an #&(, 'c1olo,
which was providing service to botnet operators, was depeered and spam
dropped 5/6-?56 #nternet-wide. :t the same time, it is becoming clear that
malware authors, spammers, and phishers are learning from each other, and
possibly forming various kinds of partnerships.
:n industry of email address harvesting is dedicated to collecting email
addresses and selling compiled databases.)=+ &ome of these address
harvesting approaches rely on users not reading the "ne print of agreements,
resulting in them agreeing to send messages indiscriminately to their
contacts. 0his is a common approach in social networking spam such as that
generated by the social networking site @uechup.)?+
#nstant messaging)edit+
'ain article 'essaging spam
#nstant messaging spam makes use of instant messaging systems. :lthough
less ubi2uitous than its e-mail counterpart, according to a report from Aerris
;esearch, 5// million spam #'s were sent in .//B, twice the level of .//.. :s
instant messaging tends to not be blocked by "rewalls, it is an especially
useful channel for spammers. 0his is very common on many instant
messaging systems such as &kype.
>ewsgroup and forum)edit+
'ain article >ewsgroup spam
>ewsgroup spam is a type of spam where the targets are !senet newsgroups.
&pamming of !senet newsgroups actually pre-dates e-mail spam. !senet
convention de"nes spamming as e%cessive multiple posting, that is, the
repeated posting of a message (or substantially similar messages). 0he
prevalence of !senet spam led to the development of the -reidbart #nde% as
an ob$ective measure of a messageCs 7spamminess7.
'ain article Aorum spam
Aorum spam is the creating of messages that are advertisements on #nternet
forums. #t is generally done by automated spambots. 'ost forum spam
consists of links to e%ternal sites, with the dual goals of increasing search
engine visibility in highly competitive areas such as weight loss,
pharmaceuticals, gambling, pornography, real estate or loans, and generating
more tra,c for these commercial websites. &ome of these links contain code
to track the spambotCs identityD if a sale goes through, the spammer behind
the spambot works on commission.
'obile phone)edit+
'ain article 'obile phone spam
'obile phone spam is directed at the te%t messaging service of a mobile
phone. 0his can be especially irritating to customers not only for the
inconvenience but also because of the fee they may be charged per te%t
message received in some markets. 0he term 7&pa&'&7 was coined at the
adnews website :dland in ./// to describe spam &'&. 0o comply with 1:>-
&(:' regulations, now &'& messages have to have the options of EEF( and
&0G(, the latter to end communication with the advertising spam altogether.
&ocial networking spam)edit+
'ain article &ocial networking spam
Aacebook and 0witter are not immune to messages containing spam links.
'ost insidiously, spammers hack into accounts and send false links under the
guise of a userCs trusted contacts such as friends and family.)4+ :s for 0witter,
spammers gain credibility by following veri"ed accounts such as that of Fady
HagaD when that account owner follows the spammer back, it legitimizes the
spammer and allows him or her to proliferate.)3+ 0witter has studied what
interest structures allow their users to receive interesting tweets and avoid
spam, despite the site using the broadcast model, in which all tweets from a
user are broadcast to all followers of the user.)*/+
&ocial spam)edit+
&preading beyond the centrally managed social networking platforms, user-
generated content increasingly appears on business, government, and
nonpro"t websites worldwide. Aake accounts and comments planted by
computers programmed to issue social spam can in"ltrate these websites.
)**+ Well-meaning and malicious human users can break websitesC policies by
submitting profanity,)*.+ insults,)*B+ hate speech, and violent messages.
Gnline game messaging)edit+
'any online games allow players to contact each other via player-to-player
messaging, chat rooms, or public discussion areas. What 2uali"es as spam
varies from game to game, but usually this term applies to all forms of
message Iooding, violating the terms of service contract for the website. 0his
is particularly common in ''G;(Hs where the spammers are trying to sell
game-related 7items7 for real-world money, chieIy among them being in-
game currency.
&pam targeting search engines (spamde%ing))edit+
'ain article &pamde%ing
&pamde%ing (a portmanteau of spamming and inde%ing) refers to a practice
on the World Wide Web of modifying E0'F pages to increase the chances of
them being placed high on search engine relevancy lists. 0hese sites use
7black hat search engine optimization (&EG) techni2ues7 to deliberately
manipulate their rank in search engines. 'any modern search engines
modi"ed their search algorithms to try to e%clude web pages utilizing
spamde%ing tactics. Aor e%ample, the search bots will detect repeated
keywords as spamming by using a grammar analysis. #f a website owner is
found to have spammed the webpage to falsely increase its page rank, the
website may be penalized by search engines.
-log, wiki, and guestbook)edit+
'ain article &pam in blogs
-log spam, or 7blam7 for short, is spamming on weblogs. #n .//B, this type of
spam took advantage of the open nature of comments in the blogging
software 'ovable 0ype by repeatedly placing comments to various blog posts
that provided nothing more than a link to the spammerCs commercial web
site.)*8+ &imilar attacks are often performed against wikis and guestbooks,
both of which accept user contributions. :nother possible form of spam in
blogs is the spamming of a certain tag on websites such as 0umblr.
&pam targeting video sharing sites)edit+
&creenshot from a spam video on Jou0ube claiming that the "lm in 2uestion
has been deleted from the site, and can only be accessed on the link posted
by the spambot in the video description (if the video were actually removed
by Jou0ube, the description would be inaccessible, and the deletion
noti"cation would look di9erent).
<ideo sharing sites, such as Jou0ube, are now being fre2uently targeted by
spammers. 0he most common techni2ue involves people (or spambots)
posting links to sites, most likely pornographic or dealing with online dating,
on the comments section of random videos or peopleCs pro"les. With the
recent addition of a 70humbs upK0humbs down7 feature, groups of spambots
may constantly 70humbs up7 a comment, getting it into the 0op 1omments
section and making the message more visible. :nother fre2uently used
techni2ue is using bots to post messages on random usersC pro"les to a spam
accountCs channel page, along with enticing te%t and images, usually of a
se%ually suggestive nature. 0hese pages may include their own or other
usersC videos, again often suggestive. 0he main purpose of these accounts is
to draw people to their link in the home page section of their pro"le. Jou0ube
has blocked the posting of such links. #n addition, Jou0ube has implemented a
1:(01E: system that makes rapid posting of repeated comments much more
di,cult than before, because of abuse in the past by mass-spammers who
would Iood peopleCs pro"les with thousands of repetitive comments.
Jet another kind is actual video spam, giving the uploaded movie a name and
description with a popular "gure or event which is likely to draw attention, or
within the video has a certain image timed to come up as the videoCs
thumbnail image to mislead the viewer, such as a still image from a feature
"lm, purporting to be a part-by-part piece of a movie being pirated, e.g. -ig
-uck -unny Aull 'ovie Gnline - (art *K*/ EL, a link to a supposed keygen or
an #&G "le for a video game, or similar. 0he actual content of the video ends
up being totally unrelated, a ;ickroll, sometimes o9ensive, or $ust features
on-screen te%t of a link to the site being promoted.)*5+ #n some cases, the
link in 2uestion may lead to an online survey site, a passworded archive "le,
or in e%treme cases, malware.)*=+ Gthers may upload videos presented in an
infomercial-like format selling their product which feature actors and paid
testimonials, though the promoted product or service is of dubious 2uality
and would likely not pass the scrutiny of a standards and practices
department at a television station or cable network.
&(#0)edit+
)icon+ 0his section re2uires e%pansion. (&eptember ./*B)
&(#0 (&(am over #nternet 0elephony) is <o#( (<oice over #nternet (rotocol)
spam, usually using &#( (&ession #nitiation (rotocol). 0his is almost identical to
telemarketing calls over traditional phone lines. When the user chooses to
receive the spam call, a pre-recorded message is usually played back. 0his is
generally easier for the spammer as <o#( services are cheap and easy to
anonymize over the #nternet, and there are many options for sending mass
amounts of calls from a single location. :ccounts or #( addresses being used
for <o#( spam can usually be identi"ed by a large number of outgoing calls,
low call completion and short call length.
:cademic &earch)edit+
:cademic &earch Engines enable researchers to "nd academic literature and
are used to obtain citation data for calculating performance metrics such as
the E-inde% and impact factor. ;esearchers from the !niversity of 1alifornia,
-erkeley and GvH! demonstrated that most (web-based) academic search
engines, especially Hoogle &cholar, are not capable of identifying spam
attacks.)*?+ 0he researchers manipulated the citation counts of articles, and
managed to make Hoogle &cholar inde% complete fake articles, some
containing advertising.)*?+
>oncommercial forms)edit+
E-mail and other forms of spamming have been used for purposes other than
advertisements. 'any early !senet spams were religious or political. &erdar
:rgic, for instance, spammed !senet with historical revisionist screeds. :
number of evangelists have spammed !senet and e-mail media with
preaching messages. : growing number of criminals are also using spam to
perpetrate various sorts of fraud.)*4+