We began our look at UCE or Unsolicited Commercial E-mail commonly known on the Internet as 'spam'. This month, we offer insights into why spam is a problem and what can be done to deal with it. Indeed, spammers argue they're simply fulfilling a market need and, if spam was not effective, they would be out of business.
Spam thrives by abusing the Internet's unique social, technological and economic structures.
Whereas each piece of paper junk mail can cost 50 cents to deliver, the digital equivalent costs just a few cents or less. More upsetting is the fact that Internet users actually pay to receive this mail, both in connect time and increased ISP operating costs. Spammers enjoy artificially low cost structures because they externalize the burdens of delivery and disposal onto the whole wired world. Elementary economics would recognize spam as classic 'freeloading', akin to trucking companies evading road taxes or chemical companies who dump untreated waste into waterways. ISPs feel the cost impact of spam as it clogs server disks, wastes bandwidth and in-flames customers.