Got Spam? Jacksonville AR

Posted by : Bob Parsons

Once upon a time on the Internet, when you saw the little envelope or heard, "You've got mail," you got a warm fuzzy feeling. As time, technology, and the popularity of the Internet progressed, most e-mail is no longer from your best friend ñ or even your business colleague. Now, it's from someone trying to sell you a miracle pill or freedom from debt, among other obscene and potentially virus-laden messages.

Today, an estimated 50 percent of all e-mail handled by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are "spam," unsolicited bulk mail. And believe it or not, this is expected to increase to the point where the majority of e-mail is in fact spam. It's no wonder, as spam is an inexpensive and easy way to advertise to a vast audience.

Who pays to handle all this junk mail? In a word, you! Because your ISP has to invest in the cost of equipment and resources to handle this junk, the cost gets passed along in your monthly Internet bill. More importantly, you also pay for spam with the most precious commodity you have ñ your time.

The burden of spam and its associated costs have drawn the attention of our legislators who have introduced several anti-spam bills to Congress, including the Reduction in Distribution (RID) of Spam Act of 2003. This bill, if passed, would require all commercial e-mail messages to be identified as such (including a standard label for unsolicited sexually explicit messages), and in...

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