Just as the title implies, this article will focus on SPAM messages, on the "know your enemy" principle. We will first describe the different types of spam, to then move to analyzing the issue in perspective, and in detail.

The purpose of spam messages is marketing (advertising to be more precise), corresponding to the conventional ways of advertising, when you are normally able to choose which adverts you want to watch or not. Internet advertising has more options than the conventional ways, since no physical boundaries can be used to accurately select or sort the content (you cannot put a doorman to your server that is able to let the mailman in and keep the flier guys out), the virtual world offers new ways of doing advertising.

Introduction Since this type of advertising puts the desired message in close contact with you (computer screen), it is believed to be more effective than the conventional ones. Look at spam levels, they did not decrease with the passing of years; instead, the advertising concept has developed into a larger entity that is part of today's Internet. This means only one thing, IT WORKS.

The vice cycle is that we are more disturbed of this type of advertising, yet we are the ones that we generate it. Spam advertising is not expensive for a any company or business (it only became more expensive once with the development of new ways of spam prevention). Spamming brings money to the business: it is more accessible and cheaper than conventional ways and, unfortunately, it is even more effective than conventional advertising ways.

As I said at the beginning of this article, the purpose of spam messages is advertising, but this is not entirely correct or limited to this goal. We will now focus on the type of spam messages and I will offer an explanation of why not all spam messages are sent with advertising in mind.