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The New York Times is running an article entitled “Spam Doubles,
Finding New Ways to Deliver Itself.”

The article states that nine out of every ten message is unsolicited.

It adds, “Much of that flood is made up of a nettlesome new breed of
junk e-mail called image spam, in which the words of the
advertisement are part of a picture, often fooling traditional spam
detectors that look for telltale phrases. Image spam increased fourfold
from last year and now represents 25 to 45 percent of all junk e-mail,
depending on the day.”

One popular new form of spam promotes penny stocks. Spammers
purchase an inexpensive stock, advertise its value, and then sell after
many people buy it.

This spam avoids the necessity of including a web address to which it
wants readers to link. It’s hoped that readers will simply contact their
stock brokers.

Click Here for the Article!

Discussion-Starters for Younger Children

  • Ask your students how people can talk/communicate with one
    another when they are not near each other. Encourage them to
    suggest multiple ways.
  • Have these forms of communication always existed?
    Tell your students about the types of phones that you
    used when you were a child. (Do you remember CBs?)

  • Ask your students how much of the regular mail that their
    parents receive, they think comes from people who are trying
    to sell something.
  • You might ask your students to conduct an investigation
    over a number of days to see how much junk mail they
    receive. This could be an interesting lesson on either
    counting or fractions.

  • Tell your students to imagine that they are living 1,000 years
    from now. How will they communicate with other people?
  • You might ask your students to write a story, draw a
    picture or make a skit explaining how people will
    communicate with one another, in 1,000 years, when
    they are not near one another.


Discussion-Starters for Older Students

  • Vocabulary to Discuss: Spam; Filter; Con Job; and, Security.

  • Why do your students think that people send spam? Encourage
    them to suggest multiple reasons.
  • You might ask your students to conduct interviews in
    which they ask other people this question.

  • Should people be allowed to send spam? Why/why not?
    Encourage your students to make arguments for both sides.
    This could be a useful question for a class debate. If you have
    the technological resources available, you might even podcast
    the debate.

  • Tell your students to imagine that the head of the Security and
    Exchange Commission asks for their advice as to how to best
    stop spam. What should be done?
  • To answer the previous question, students might begin
    working in smaller groups and then reconvene for a
    whole class discussion.

  • Do your students think that society has a responsibility to teach
    citizens not to trust spams and other con-jobs? Why/why not?
    How could society accomplish this objective?
  • Students could write essays in response to these
    question. The questions raise the idea of core
    democratic values and "the common good."
Spamming  
December 6, 2006
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