Spam:
Spam is the e-mail equivalent of junk mail. Officially, Spam is known as Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE). Spam is extremely taboo and should never be used. It is considered the worst violation of netiquette, and may result in numerous flames from people who receive it.

Some Advice on dealing with Spam

Do not reply to Spam!

Spam e-mail will often provide a reply address where you can ask to be removed from their mailing list. Do not reply. Your removal request is simply confirmation your e-mail address is valid and still in use. Before you know it, your e-mail address will be added to bulk e-mail lists and resold to Spammers everywhere. Trust us. Don't do it.

The scary part is that with the advances in technology over the last decade, just viewing a spam email may be enough to start such a downward trend. Image links in spam emails are often coded to tell the server whether the email was read, allowing the spammer to verify the email address without your reply.

Beyond that, the email address that the spam comes from may or may not be valid. If the address is harvested, replying to that address could be considered spam by the actual owner. If the address has a series of random characters in it, it may be a one-off address created only for spam usage and then deleted to reduce the chances of tracing or flaming.

Having said that, not all unwanted e-mail you'll receive is truly Spam. Often companies whom you've done business with (or partners with those companies) send newsletters, announcements, promotions, etc by e-mail. It's usually okay to follow the removal instructions on these e-mails if you wish to unsubscribe from future mailings.

How will you know the difference between unwanted e-mail and Spam?

When you read the e-mail, you'll know. Sometimes the subject alone will tell you. Spam will generally be hard to determine who it's truly from, and will often have a feeling of fraud associated with it.

Other e-mail will be easy to see who the sender was, and contain valid, up-front information. It may just happen to be information you don't care about. If so, follow the removal instructions, and you should be removed from their list right away. Reputable companies will have no problem accommodating your removal request.

Be aware, though, that it is also possible to harvest a valid email address from a company and send spam using that email address, or at least it will look that way. Avoid flaming suspected spammers, especially when you can find a legitimate company based at that domain name. They may be an innocent victim.

What can you do about Spam?

The easiest thing to do is simply delete Spam and move on. There are various services and organizations where you can complain about Spam, but experience indicates the results are rarely worth the effort you'll spend reporting it. If you feel you must do something, visit CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email), or review the policies that the government is attempting to implement.

There are also companies that make programs to deal with spam, both at the server and individual computer level. Spam is hard for a program to identify, so there is always the potential for legitimate e-mail to be marked as spam or deleted (depending on your settings), but these programs are becoming more sophisticated all the time. The program that we use on our own computer, Spam Shredder, learns what we consider spam every time we use it. Personally, I am impressed enough to offer a link to their product even if I don't make a dime off it.