Email Spam Filtering

Abstract

In the literature we can find several terms for naming unsolicited emails. Junk email, Bulk email or Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) are some of them, but the most common word used to reference it is SPAM. Its not clear where do the word spam comes from, but many authors state that the term was taken from a Monty Pythons sketch, where a couple go into a restaurant, and the wife tries to get something other than Spam. In the background are a bunch of Vikings that sing the praises of Spam: "SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM... lovely SPAM, wonderful SPAM". Pretty soon the only thing you can hear in the skit is the word "Spam". That same idea would happen to the Internet if large scale inappropriate postings were allowed. You couldn't pick the real postings out from the Spam.

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