Business Glossary

a public forum or discussion area on a computer network. All users of the network can post messages, and every user can read all the messages that have been posted. The most famous newsgroups are those distributed worldwide by the Usenet system, covering thousands of topics.

document transmitted electronically from the user's computer or terminal to an information service. Accountants and their clients can take advantage of electronic mail to transmit essential messages. With electronic mail, each user in the system has a "mailbox," which receives, holds, and sends information to Others. The information sent may be spreadsheets, reports, memos, and so forth.

a computer term for unwanted e-mail. In a Monty Python television skit, a group of Vikings in a restaurant sing about the meat product, "Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, lovely spam Wonderful spam" until told to shut up. As a result, something that keeps being repeated to great annoyance was called spam, and computer programmers picked up on it.

Protect your e-mail address.Spammers either buy lists of e-mail addresses or use software programs that mine the addresses from the Internet. If your address is posted in discussion groups, on Web sites, in chat rooms, etc., chances are it will end up on one or more of these lists. Only post your address publicly when absolutely necessary.
Set up multiple e-mail accounts.If you do participate regularly in on-line activities where you post your address, set up another e-mail account. Reveal it only to close friends and family.
Use spam filters.Many e-mail programs, such as Outlook Express, have built-in tools that block messages sent from certain addresses or that filter messages based on key words you define. Check the on-line help files for your e-mail software.
Use anti-spam software.You can install software designed to eliminate spam. Some work by matching incoming messages against a list of known spammers; others block messages that don't match an approved list of acceptable addresses. Check out the latest anti-spam programs at Download.com.
Report violators.A number of government agencies and private groups accept complaints. Whether they can do anything to stop the deluge is an unanswered question. Forward spam to the Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov.
Source: about.com