Net Abuse is an abuse of Internet services and not necessarily abuse on the Internet. An act which interferes with the Net-use of an individual or group of individuals in some specific way qualifies as Net Abuse. Net Abuse also includes activities which are illegal or dishonest. Such messages work in much the same way as the conventional postal version. In addition to being a waste of resources, such messages are illegal in certain countries.
Many Internet users use a dial-up connection and pay for their online and telephone time.
It costs them money to receive email. Receipt of unsolicited commercial advertising therefore costs them money and is particularly unwelcome. It should be noted that a user has not expressed an interest by the mere act of posting a news article in any particular newsgroup, unless a specific request for information to be emailed to them has been made. Similar to the UCE but such email does not attempt to sell anything. Its purpose is usually to annoy.