Aptly named after the puzzling, unwanted meat product, spam (as in "scam" or "sham") is Net-speak for unsolicited junk email. Spammers love email because it costs next to nothing to send so they can harass the world with limitless buy-this-stuff email (usually selling smut or a program that generates more spam). Spammers will often offer you the option of removing yourself from their emailing list. But more often than not they use non-functioning return email addresses or anonymous remailers so it's difficult to staunch their ever-steady flow (though recent legislation has been passed outlawing this behavior). However you're not helpless: Tools like spam-filter programs and a spam-abuse hotline do provide recipes for cooking spam.