On sending out my monthly newsletter, I received an email back from a very irate addressee saying she does not want to receive my SPAM. I was horrified to say the least as people love my newsletters and I had not considered that it would be sent to someone that may consider it SPAM.

Is SPAM therefore unwanted email by the receiver and how do we minimise the amount of SPAM we receive on a daily basis? It is the talk of everybody with both minor and major irritation and we are all thankful to our ISP’s for attempting to clean out the worst of it. That is until they filter a newsletter or attachment that we have been patiently waiting for and then with provocation we stamp our feet at our ISP. The proverbial catch 22.

We can however not deny the fact that there is an unbelievable amount of unwanted emails promoting junk, garbage, rubbish and filth all slopping around in cyberspace.

Most of us are not geared up or educated enough in Internet SPAM to do anything, or are satisfied to complain about it on every listening ear instead of doing something that disallows it.

I did say most of us! An innovative individual based in Knysna, ‘get the tongues a talking’ has now set up www.whosaidspam.com. Now for $5 a month you can post copies of the mail you are receiving and they will follow up as far as they can.

Better still for every 50 members who sign up they will employ another disadvantaged person / student and not only will they teach them how to track and counter spam, but the right way to behave online from the beginning.

They are not unrealistic to think that they can really make a dent in the surges of Internet SPAM that wash through cyberspace in tidal waves daily.
But it is possible that a few like minded individuals may sit up and think and even possibly get on the band wagon and do. They may make a difference and who knows the effort may just be worth it.

By Justine Lamb