| Also, it is possible to impersonate, threaten, disparage, or
otherwise harass someone via email. These are examples of abuse
-on- the email system, and are not the subject of this FAQ. |
| UBE: Unsolicited Bulk Email
Email with substantially identical content sent to many recipients
who did not ask to receive it. Almost all UBE is also UCE
(see next). |
| Taken by itself, unsolicited email does not constitute abuse; not
all unsolicited email is also undesired email. For example,
receiving unsolicited email from a long-lost friend or relative is
certainly not abuse. The reason that it is defined separately is
that email abuse takes several forms, all of which begin with the
fact that the email received is unsolicited. |
| These are all legitimate, measurable costs, and they are not borne
by the sender of the messages. UBE is, at best, exploitation of
email for profit; at worst, theft. There are currently few
regulations regarding UBE; the potential for growth is open-ended.
All by itself, UBE could render the email system virtually useless
for legitimate messages. |
| This FAQ will be posted to news.admin.net-abuse.email, news.answers,
and other newsgroups, once per week.
The latest version is always available at:
|
