What is spam? It is basically a non-genuine, low quality email that contains no useful content but simply is designed to annoy its intended audience or to trick them into clicking on the email attachment which has been attached in an attempt to obtain more personal information such as name, address, phone number, email address etc.
Spam is also known as junk email for good reason. As far back as the early days of the World Wide Web itself, spam has existed as a method of marketing products or services specifically to an audience that has not expressed interest in these products or services in the past. The use of spam emails to market products is not a new phenomenon and can be traced back to the dawn of the Internet itself.
Although spam has been around for quite some time, it has always managed to remain under the radar unless it was noticed and then dealt with. This is largely due to the fact that the main concern of most Internet users is to only receive emails which are relevant to their inboxes. This is because they are used to receiving only important messages from businesses and organisations, and as soon as they get an email that they do not recognize or from an unknown sender, they tend to delete it. This leaves a trail of junk email behind and a large number of Internet users find themselves unable to delete this unwanted material.
So, when is what is spam mail considered to be illegal? In most cases, sending spam or unsolicited email is considered a criminal offence and can lead to a person being arrested and/or prosecuted if caught. There are certain regulations that are put into place though regarding the type of emails that are considered spam and they vary from country to country.
For example, some countries do not allow spam emails to be sent from their territory. Other countries also regulate the types of emails that are allowed in the country and as such may be seen as spam by others. Also, other countries also impose regulations about the type of content that can be included in a spam message, and whether or not this content is allowed to be used as leverage for online advertising.
Most countries also regulate the amount of time that can be spent in sending unsolicited or unwanted emails, which can lead to the sender losing credibility if an email contains any important information such as credit card numbers, personal information and/or passwords. to online financial services such as banking websites. Some countries have also placed restrictions on the email content itself and may require an email to contain only the sender’s name and the full and correct address of the sender or the recipient or the sender’s email id and does not allow any other links to be included in the email. This is especially important in countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany where many spam filters will only allow mail to be delivered if the correct mail id has been given to the email address.
How is what is spam mail illegal also depends on how it is delivered. If an email is sent through the use of a computer or an online form, there is a possibility that it may be illegal depending on whether or not the email is opened or forwarded.
In terms of emailing the spam, some countries allow an email to be forwarded via an online service such as email forwarding to another recipient. However, many countries will consider email forwarding to be spam as the sender uses one’s name and address in the sender header of the email which is then transmitted to a third party such as another online service. Another way to circumvent the spam laws would be to use a service such as an email spam blocker or a proxy server to send the email. An email blocker is a service that has been set up which intercepts and deletes spam email before it reaches the inbox of its intended recipient.
Editor-in-Chief since 2011.