Spam
Spam refers to unsolicited and often irrelevant messages sent over the internet, primarily through email, but also via text messages and social media platforms. Since its emergence in the mid-1970s, spam has evolved from simple newsgroup postings to a widespread issue that plagues users with advertisements, solicitations, and even harmful content like viruses. By 2022, it was estimated that nearly half of all emails sent globally were classified as spam, leading to significant frustrations and security concerns for users.
As spam can encompass a range of legal and illegal solicitations—including phishing attempts and unwanted advertisements—there have been increasing calls for stricter regulations to combat it. While some laws, like the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 in the United States, aim to curb spam through "opt-out" mechanisms and penalties for fraudulent practices, challenges remain in effectively regulating the issue. Many argue that such laws may inadvertently increase spam volumes, and enforcement is complicated by the difficulty in tracing spam senders.
To mitigate spam, users are encouraged to employ protective measures such as firewalls, antivirus software, and email filters. Additionally, Internet service providers are developing technologies designed to reduce spam delivery. Despite ongoing efforts, spam continues to be a pervasive problem that affects the daily experiences of internet users worldwide.
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Subject Terms
Spam
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES: Business and financial crime; computer crime; fraud; privacy
SIGNIFICANCE: Since the rise of the Internet, e-mail, and text messaging, computer and cell phone users have been deluged with an ever-growing flood of spam, much of which contains fraudulent solicitations and offers. The irritation and disruptions to normal communications caused by the sheer volume of spam have prompted many calls for criminalizing spam itself.
What is now known as “spam” has existed since the mid-1970s. It originated as postings to newsgroups, evolved into advertisements and solicitations, and soon got out of hand, with individual members receiving numerous unwanted e-mails. With the rapid expansion of the World Wide Web during the 1990s, the problem of unsolicited e-mail began to grow exponentially. By 2022, 98 percent of Internet users were receiving dozens—sometimes even hundreds—of pieces of spam every day. An estimated 49 percent of all emails sent worldwide each day in 2022 were considered spam. About 49 percent of all spam was sent via email, while phone spam accounting for 26.5 percent, text messages 14.7, and messaging apps such as facebook and WhatsApp were responsible for 9.8 percent.
Spam messages include legal and illegal solicitations of all kinds, running from advertisements—including a large proportion of pornographic advertisements—to chain letters and jokes. Volume is not the only problem that spam presents to computer users. Many spam messages contain computer viruses and worms that can inflict serious damage on the computers receiving the unwanted messages. The annoyance that spam causes computer users is difficult to exaggerate. In addition to offending users with unwanted—and often repugnant—solicitations, spam forces users to spend time and resources filtering and removing spam, while increasing their anxieties about the safety and security of their computers.
During the 1990s, increasing numbers of lawsuits were being filed against the purveyors of spam, known as spammers, in state and federal courts—primarily under fraud statutes. The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (CAUCE) is one of a number of groups that have lobbied for criminalizing spam in the United States and Europe. By 2024, no blanket national law made spam illegal, but more than thirty states had passed laws pertaining to commercial email and spam.
One problem with criminalizing spam is the fact that much of it falls under laws protecting legitimate commerce and trade. The state of California found a way around this problem by enacting a law requiring that spam messages be labeled as advertising and that they offer ways for recipients to have their names removed from mailing lists. The California law was upheld by an appeals court as constitutional.
Existing federal and state laws protect citizens from fraud and illegal pornography. The Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, and the National White Collar Crime Commission all investigate complaints concerning spam. However, spam messages are difficult to trace back to their senders. Moreover, even when the senders are identified, they are rarely prosecuted or sued unless criminal activity and criminal intent can clearly be demonstrated.
On January 1, 2004, the federal Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) of 2003 took effect. A so-called “opt out” law, this legislation gave e-mail users a way to remove themselves from mailing lists. In addition, the CAN-SPAM Act forbade fraudulent e-mail subject lines, made it illegal to send e-mail to addresses that are improperly “harvested,” forbade sending e-mail with pornographic content without clear identifying labels, and provided both criminal and civil penalties for violators.
Some critics warned that the CAN-SPAM Act would actually increase the volume of spam in the United States. The fear is that by signaling to the world that spam is legal in the United States, foreign spammers might send more messages than ever. Also, requiring recipients to read unwanted e-mails to opt out is considered unfair.
Nothing in the law can stop illegal spammers from sending spam. The general consensus toward fighting spam seems to be on the side of private sector response. Individual computer users should use devices such as firewalls and antivirus programs to protect their computers from invasive e-mail threats; users can also set up filters within their e-mail to detect and divert spam to a specific folder so that it does not clutter their inbox. Internet service providers are developing “black hole” technologies to help prevent spam from reaching subscribers. These are seen as more effective than additional layers of legislation.
Bibliography
Clifford, Ralph D., editor. Cybercrime: The Investigation, Prosecution, and Defense of a Computer-Related Crime, 3rd ed. Carolina Academic Press, 2011.
Feinstein, Ken. Fight Spam, Viruses, Pop-Ups and Spyware (How to Do Everything). McGraw-Hill, 2004.
Poteet, Jeremy. Canning Spam: You’ve Got Mail (That You Don’t Want). Pearson, 2007.
Ellis, Cai, and Robert Brandl. "Spam Statistics (2024): New Data on Junk Email, AI Scams & Phishing." EmailTooltester, 19 Oct.2023, www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/spam-statistics/. Accessed 11 July 2024.
Thomas, Douglas, and Brian D. Loader, editors. Cybercrime: Law Enforcement, Security, and Surveillance in the Information Age. Routledge, 2000.
"U.S. States with Laws Specific to Commercial Email and Spam." LSD.Law, 2024, www.lsd.law/define/table-3-u.s.-states-with-laws-specific-to-commercial-email-and-spam. Accessed 11 July 2024.