Spam refers to unwanted email. The term originated from a Monty Python sketch where characters repeatedly sang about spam, a canned meat product. In the 1990s, the term was adopted to describe unwanted bulk messages on Usenet and later commercial email spam. Today, spam remains a major nuisance and comes in many forms from advertising to scams. Common categories of spam include adult content, health products, personal finance, and education.

1. Fabiana Curien
What is spam?
If you use email, you’ll have encountered spam. But do you know where the term comes from, and
why it’s used to refer to unwanted email? ‘Spam’ is an acronym derived from the words ‘spiced’ and
‘ham’. In 1937, the Hormel Foods Corporation (USA) started selling minced sausage made from out-
of-date meat. The Americans refused to buy this unappetizing product. To avoid financial losses the
owner of the company, Mr. Hormel, launched a massive advertizing campaign which resulted in a
contract to provide tinned meat products to the Army and Navy. In 1937, Hormel Foods began to
supply its products to American and allied troops. After World War 2, with Britain in the grips of an
economic crisis, spam was one of the few meat products that wasn’t rationed and hence was widely
available. George Orwell, in his book ‘1984’, described spam as ‘pink meat pieces’, which gave a new
meaning to the word ‘spam’ - something disgusting but inevitable.
In December 1970 the BBC television comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus showed a sketch
set in a cafe where nearly every item on the menu included spam - the tinned meat product. As the
waiter recited the SPAM-filled menu, a chorus of Viking patrons drowned out all other conversation
with a song repeating "SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM... lovely SPAM, wonderful SPAM", hence
"Spamming" the dialogue. Since then spam has been associated with unwanted, obtrusive, excessive
information which suppresses required messages
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In 1993 the term ‘spam’ was first introduced with reference to unsolicited or undesired bulk electronic
messages. Richard Dephew, administrator of the world-wide distributed Internet discussion system
Usenet, wrote a program which mistakenly caused the release of dozens of recursive messages onto the
news.admin.policy newsgroup. The recipients immediately found an appropriate name for these
obtrusive messages – spam.
On April 12 1994, a husband-and-wife firm of lawyers, Canter & Siegel, posted the first massive spam
mailing. The company’s programmer employed Usenet to advertise the services offered by Canter &
Siegel, thus giving a start to commercial spam.
Today the word ‘spam’ is widely used in email terminology, though Hormel tinned meat products are
still on sale in the USA.
Types of spam
Spam comes in many different varieties, ranging from advertising of legitimate goods and services to
political propaganda to Internet scams. Spam worldwide tends to advertise a certain range of goods and
services irrespective of language and geography. Additionally, spam reflects seasonal changes, with
advertisements for Christmas items and car heaters being replaced by air conditioner advertising in
summer.
Spammers constantly extend the range of their offers and are always searching for new ways of
attracting unwary users. The list of spam categories is growing. However, when averaged out over the
course of the year, 50% of spam falls into the following categories:
1 Adult content 4 Personal finance
2 Health 5 Education and training
3 IT
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2. How to reduce spam
Spam isn’t only a nuisance, but can pose a threat to your computer or your data. For
simple, practical guidelines on how you can reduce the amount of spam you receive,
read here.
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