Spam: Junk Email

Spam: Junk Email

The fictional story “The Case of the Spam Stalker” was based on my research and interest in the topic of junk email or spam. I was able to think of this topic because of the unbelievable amount of junk email that I was receiving at my America Online email account. In fact, I received so much junk mail that I decided to switch to another account with Lycos. Because I was having so much of a problem with unwanted mail, I figured that there were many more people with this problem. Hence, I decided to do my research project on junk email, otherwise known as “spam”. Similarly, my story involves the main character having to switch her email accounts because of the increasing volume of junk mail that she received. Throughout the story, the character presents situations in which she is able to inform the reader of what spam is, where it comes from, how to get rid of it, and what the laws are concerning spam.

In order to start this story, I first had to research. The majority of my research came from internet databases that I found through the James Madison University website. However, I also managed to find one book by Geoff Mulligan on the subject of removing spam.

The major areas of my story that feature my research results are, I think, obvious. The first occurrence of my research appearing in the story is when the main character, Dorian, complains to her friend Tony about the amount of spam she gets at her AOL account (Dvorak). When Tony proceeds to explain to Dorian that if she upgrades to AOL version 8 then spam wouldn’t be a huge problem (Business Wire); and when he tells her how spam got into her account through message boards and member directories (Mulligan), are other examples...

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...ces Using Filters, Other Tactics To Combat Spam.” Internet World. 19 Oct. 1998. Lexis Nexis Academic. James Madison University, Carrier Library. 1 Apr. 2003. <http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe>.

Hill, Steve. “Unwanted. Unwelcome. Unstoppable?: Lovely spam, wonderful spam!” Internet Magazine. Dec. 2001. Infotrac. James Madison University, Carrier Library. 1 Apr. 2003. <http://web6.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/0/1/1/purl=rc6_ITOF?sw_aep=viva_jmu>

Mulligan, Geoff. Removing the Spam: Email Processing and Filtering. Reading: Addison Wesley, 1999.

Warner, Janine. “How much does spam really cost?” The Miami Herald. 10 Mar. 2003. James Madison University, Carrier Library. 1 Apr. 2003. <http://web6.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/0/1/1/purl=rc6_ITOF?sw_aep=viva_jmu>.