spam is a term of English origin whose meaning designates a electronic message received but unsolicited by the user.
The content of a spam is usually an advertising message that has the objective of promoting the services or products of a company to a large mass of email users.
spamming is the practice of mass mailing spam and spammer is the designation given to its author. The main features of the spamming they are sending the message to thousands of people at the same time and the recipient's lack of authorization to use their e-mail address.
In addition to the usual messages for commercial purposes, there are several other types of spam that invade users' mailboxes. For example, those malicious messages that try to induce the user to inform their personal or bank account data, or even run some program that contains a virus.
Other types of spam such as rumors or chain letters, which encourage or force the user to forward to their contacts, are generally intended to expand the email database of the
spammer. In many cases, users are not careful to hide email addresses when forwarding this type of message.Originally, the word spam was a word used to designate a food product, usually canned pork. The term spam is now used to designate an unsolicited email or message thanks to the humorous sketch of the British group Monty Python, in which the word spam is repeated exhaustively.
See also the meaning of spoiler.