Spam

Spam may refer to any of the following:

1. Alternatively called mass e-mail marketing, UCE (Unsolicited Commercial E-mail) and bulk e-mail, spam (not the meat product) is slang that describes junk e-mail on the Internet. Spam is an e-mail sent to thousands and sometimes millions of people without prior approval, promoting a particular product, service, or a scam to get other people's money. The first spam e-mail was sent by Gary Thuerk on May 1, 1978, an employee at Digital who was advertising the new DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, and 2060T on ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network).

Although prohibited in many countries, in some cases, replying to spam indicates your e-mail address is valid, and your e-mail address may be added to other spam lists. When receiving any e-mail that is spam, it is usually best to not reply and delete the e-mail. If you're getting spam from a company you shared your e-mail with, and you think the company is trustworthy, it's safe to click the Unsubscribe or Remove e-mail link.

2. When talking in chat, a forum, or a newsgroup, spam, also known as flooding, is posting multiple lines of the same text two or more times. In a newsgroup, if a message is posted two or more times, this is also considered spam or a flood of messages.

3. Spam is also a general term used in any form of online communication to describe someone advertising a product or service.

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