What is spam? How to avoid it? How can it cause damage?
611007
Everyone else answered your first and last question, so you should know what spam is now.\n\nThe most important question, "How to avoid it," has not been answered, and most people don't seem to figure it out, and would rather waste their time fighting it and installing new software and doing "maintenance."\n\nThe best way to do away with spam, is to open a second email account, and never, ever, ever sign up online for anything on the internet with that account. \n\nNow that the internet folks have your email address, it will only get worse as they sell your information to others, pass it around, trade it for other information, and generally expand the proliferation of your email address.\n\nAlmost all ISP's offer multiple email addresses, or you can get a freebie from Yahoo or MSN or whatever. \n\nNot only the "best" way, but the only way to do away with spam is to create a clean email account, and don't give it away to people you don't know. Nobody can use your email that you don't give it to. Use your spammed account to chat or join rss feeds or groups.\n\nGood luck fighting the old account. It's a losing battle.\n\nIncidentally, I have an email account I use strictly for my business that has never received one email I didn't want; not one piece of spam in over a year. What a pleasure it is to use, when you know waiting email is something you need or want. No more time wasted for unneccessary "maintenance" and fiddling with filters and blockers and the latest new spam program.
1079258
Hit the button that says "spam" and put a check mark next to the email(s).\nIf you continue to get mail from this person, it will automatically be re-directed to your spam folder and you wont be subjected to reading it anymore.  \n\n GIT-R-DONE!!!
29215
If you are sending spam,you got a chance to get shutting down your account.Yes ,yahoo will boot millions like you if doing spaming.And don't forget yahoo is No.1
10307
For computers/email:\n'Spamming' means sending a lot of emails to people who didn't ask for them; it's used mostly by advertisers and to spread viruses.\n\n("Spam" is also a brand of processed, canned meat - similar to ham.  There's plenty of debate about when & why people started using 'spam' for mass emails.)
223285
In my maibox. I get 16-20 emails of this nature that my Spam detector shunts into  the "Bulk" maibox. When I check my mail, I simply delete the whole 00000000*&*^&#@"?!? mess of them. survey offers and all.\nYou can do it too!
1102963
spam is what i would call bologna mail. its mail thats sent from people that get your email address from a mailing list or a people search and most of the time its junk -example-uk lottery,parcel package rewards its all scams to get personal information they try to steal your money or use your identity. dont pay attention to any mail in which you know you never entered there website or are not familiar with theseb mail also carry viruses sometimes
331390
You can't really stop spam.\n\nYou can get a better filter, but it may filter out some "good" messages (from family, friends, companies that need to send you information on warranties, recalls, rebates, etc.)\n\nThe best idea is to get a new email address, make it hard to guess (not the same as any other email account you see anywhere), be more careful who you give it to. Then open another email address to use when you register with various sites on the web, such as news sites, ESPN, etc., that you don't care if you ever hear from. maybe you can use your current email address as your secondary address, since it's already attracting spam.
152584
Well, stop posting your email addres to the internet like you did in the question!!!  It makes it very easy for spammers to harvest.\n\nSet up a filter in your email service that sends spam to a junk/bulk folder so you don't have to see it.  Most email software allows you set either set filters or block address/senders.
451181
thanks...i will try!\nsince i use Mcafee internet suite....i don't really have any spam at all!!
394235
There's a lot of iterations of this trash mail.  There are also a lot of scripts that just look through web pages for email addys to find victims to spam.\n\nCheck out www.419eater.com for a laugh and more info.
486051
You cannot stop spam once it starts. The key is to never, ever, make your email address public. Do not join any group and have your address visible, as there are people out there who love to add you to their lists.\n\nI use more than one account. For instance, the one I use here is the one I used to have friends use, but after a couple of years, the junk mail got horrible, so I opened a new account and gave my personal friends that address. \n\nI have a few accounts. One I use for business, and only certain businesses get that address.\n\nAnother I use to join online forums and mailing lists.\n\nOne of my accounts gets a lot of spam, and fortunately, most goes directly into the bulk mailbox, which I do not look at. I imagine, in the future I will totally close one account once the spam filter gets overrun.\n\nsometimes the bad spam comes because an acquaintance gets mad and gives your email address to an unsavory site...\n\nOpen a new account or two and keep the addresses private!
347546
Spam is any message or posting, regardless of its content, that is sent to multiple recipients who have not specifically requested the message. Spam can also be multiple postings of the same message to newsgroups or list servers that aren't related to the topic of the message. Other common terms for spam include unsolicited commercial email (UCE) and unsolicited bulk email (UBE). \n\nThe individuals who send spam are typically people who purchased or harvested a list of email addresses. They send messages from numerous different addresses to all areas of the Web. \n\nAll mail originating from an ISP has an originating IP address embedded in the full address headers. This address helps to identify the sender of the email and track the individual to his or her service provider. Individuals who use that ISP's address in their spam are forging mail headers if the originating IP line is absent in the spam.
566126
if you don't know the sender then don't open it, its probably spam, and some might infect your computer with virus. to avoid receiving them, avoid giving your email accounts on the internet. if you're posting on boards, try typing your email address like this\n\naccount name[at]blah.com\n\nalso try having 2 separate email accounts, one for your personal address and another for purposes like joining accounts in internet sites etc. most spams came from these
171522
just ignore the bulk folder, its for spam and you should pay no attention to it
122617
Ack, not more spam!  \n\nDo not send any commercial or promotional emails to people who did not specifically and verifiably request it, no matter great your product is and how much you think they need to hear about it.\n\nWhat is spam and why should you care?  \nhttp://www.netmanners.com/spam_spam_spam.html
435396
Very informative question please read definitions below::\n\nSPAM\n\nTo indiscriminately send unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages, especially commercial advertising in mass quantities. Noun: electronic "junk mail".\n\nSpam refers to electronic junk mail or junk newsgroup postings. Some people define spam even more generally as any unsolicited e-mail. In addition to being a nuisance, spam also eats up a lot of network bandwidth. Because the Internet is a public network, little can be done to prevent spam, just as it is impossible to prevent junk mail. However, the use of software filters in e-mail programs can be used to remove most spam sent through e-mail.\n\n"SPAM" mail is the practice of sending massive amounts of e-mail promotions or advertisements (and scams) to people that have not asked for it. Spam mail is controversial and there are many levels of definitions for it. Many times, spam e-mail lists are created by "harvesting" e-mail addresses from discussion boards and groups, chat rooms, IRC, and web pages. Pugmarks strictly prohibits sending spam from accounts on our servers.\n\n\nA spam message is an unsolicited, usually commercial e-mail message. It is also referred to as UCE, or unsolicited commercial e-mail.\n\nAs a noun, an irrelevant message (frequently commercial advertising) cross-posted to many public fora (eg.: Usenet groups) simultaneously. As a verb, the act of posting such spam. The term is derived, obscurely, from a popular Monty Python comedy sketch that celebrates the pleasures of consuming a certain tinned meat product.\n\nSpam by e-mail is a type of spam that involves sending identical or nearly identical messages to thousands (or millions) of recipients. Addresses of recipients are often harvested from Usenet postings or web pages, obtained from databases, or simply guessed by using common names and domains. By definition, spam is sent without the permission of the recipients. \n\nSpam is repeated use of more than one grenade in one part of a map in the quake mod Team Fortress. It also broadly incorporates overuse of the in-game messaging system and excessive setting of detpacks (large-scale explosions). \n\nSpam is a popular Monty Python sketch, first broadcast in 1970. In the sketch, two customers are trying to order a breakfast without SPAM from a menu which includes the processed meat product in every entree. The term spam (in electronic communication) is derived from this sketch. \n\nhttp://360.yahoo.com/jcbroogley
566039
Don't worry! This is easy to fix. When you clicked "Spam," the message went into your Spam folder.\n\n1.Open the Spam folder by clicking it in the folder list on the left of the page \n2.Click the message that you marked spam by mistake. \n3.Click the "Not Spam" button along the top of the window.\n\nDone! Ahhhh, sigh of relief