What is SPAM (UBE/UCE)

What is spam?
Spam is any electronic mail message that is:

Transmitted to a large number of recipients; and
Some or all of those recipients have not explicitly and knowingly requested those messages.

It does not matter what the content of the message is. It can be an advertisement for a commercial product, a solicitation for donations by a charity, or a religious pitch by somebody intent on saving your soul. If it meets the two criteria above, it is spam.

The word "spam" is also used as a verb to describe the act of sending spam, and the derivative "spammers" is used to describe the person who sends spam.

What is UBE?

UBE stands for "Unsolicited Bulk Email". It means the same thing as spam. "UBE" is used in formal writing, where "spam" is usually only used in its verb and descriptive forms.

What is UCE?

UCE is spam that advertises a commercial product, service, or company. With UCE, the sender is usually hoping to get you to spend money with them - although senders of UCE may get their revenue from selling other forms of advertising. The term "UCE" is used most frequently in the United States, where constitutional restrictions are believed by many to prevent legislation restricting other types of spam.

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