It's a sad commentary on Internet ethics when one can post a get-rich scheme, hoax or political statement on every newsgroup such that the reader has to sort out the junk from the subject being searched. But spamming is more than just annoying. It routinely overloads ISP servers. Some ISPs have already brought suits against spammers since their messages often prevent regular subscribers from accessing the Internet. One place is from the newsgroups.
Software is available that can scan all messages posted and develop e-mail address lists.
The lists can even be sorted to show what your interests are from the subject category of your postings. The software scanning programs will not know that the address is invalid but a real human wanting to reply to you would recognize the need to remove the nospam. Many of these freebees are little more than fronts for people looking to harvest addresses to sell to spammers. One bill is a takeoff from an existing law against unsolicited fax messages, suggesting that e-mail is no different than facsimile. There is a good likelihood, however, that a number of states may pass anti-spam bills before Congress acts.