The Cost of Spam

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Spam is unsolicited commercial e-mail (or news postings) (UCE) that is akin to 3rd class bulk mail sent over the internet by email. However, unlike 3rd class bulk mail, people who send out spammed messages do not pay for the cost of sending out the email message or news postings since no stamps are necessary in the virtual world of the internet. The cost of sending one e-mail is the same cost of sending 1,000,000.

The reputation of those who spam are seen to be persons who are trying to promote various scams and shams that we have set out in our site such as:

Chain letters
Pyramid schemes
Other "Get Rich Quick" or "Make Money Fast" schemes
Offers of phone sex lines and ads for pornographic web sites
Offers of bulk e-mailing services for sending UCE
Stock offerings for unknown start-up corporations
Dubious health products and remedies
Illegally pirated software
Virus hoaxes
While the cost for one recipient to receive spam might not seem as much, taken with all recipients, the time to read and delete spam is quite high. Further, the cost to the internet service providers is exorbitant if you take into account:

  • The additional bandwidth that internet service providers must purchase to deal with the high-volume traffic that come through their servers.

  • The additional storage for bulk messages that must be added.

  • The cost of individuals to write software programs to filter out spam or the cost to purchase, install, maintain and upgrade software to filter out spam.

  • The cost to maintain resources necessary to respond to complaints by customers of receiving spam and to track the list on which its customers are listed.

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