Unwritten Thoughts

What are the commonly used terms in spamming? This article aims to provide information on how we can prevent or minimize unsolicited messages from our inbox.

A Google bomb (also referred to as a ‘link bomb’) is Internet slang for a certain kind of attempt to influence the ranking of a given page in results returned by the Google search engine, often with humorous or political intentions.[1] Because of the way that Google’s algorithm works, a page will be ranked higher if the sites that link to that page use consistent anchor text. A Google bomb is created if a large number of sites link to the page in this manner. Google bomb is used both as a verb and a noun. The phrase “Google bombing” was introduced to the New Oxford American Dictionary in May 2005.[2] Google bombing is closely related to spamdexing, the practice of deliberately modifying HTML pages to increase the chance of their being placed close to the beginning of search engine results, or to influence the category to which the page is assigned in a misleading or dishonest manner.

Google juice is an internet slang for the ability or power of a website to turn up in Google searches. A website that commonly turns up as the first or second entry in a variety of searches — especially for keywords that are not part of the site’s name — can be said to have a lot of Google juice. It is frequently used by bloggers and webmasters. Google’s PageRank system plays a large role in ranking results for a given search. It works by counting how many times a page has been linked to and by the “quality” of those links — namely how many times the page that is linking has itself been linked to. In this way, sites with high Google rankings (i.e., lots of “Google juice”) can offer to “share” or “give” Google juice to a less popular site. A link from a site with less Google juice can also be helpful in this regard to a lesser degree: there is less juice to give.
On the World Wide Web, a link farm is any group of web pages that all hyperlink to every other page in the group. Although some link farms can be created by hand, most are created through automated programs and services. A link farm is a form of spamming the index of a search engine (sometimes called spamexing or spamdexing). Other link exchange systems are designed to allow individual websites to selectively exchange links with other relevant websites and are not considered a form of spamdexing.

Spamdexing describes any of various methods to manipulate the relevancy or prominence of resources indexed by a search engine, usually in a manner inconsistent with the purpose of the indexing system. Search engines use a variety of algorithms to determine relevancy ranking. Some of these include determining whether the search term appears in the META keywords tag, others whether the search term appears in the body text or URL of a web page. Many search engines check for instances of spamdexing and will remove suspect pages from their indexes.

TrustRank is a link analysis technique for semi-automatically separating useful webpages from spam. (Gyöngyi et al. 2004)
Page hijacking is a form of spamming the index of a search engine (spamdexing). It is achieved by creating a rogue copy of a popular website which shows contents similar to the original to a web crawler, but redirects web surfers to unrelated or malicious websites. Spammers can use this technique to achieve high rankings in result pages for certain key words.
A Googlewhack is a Google search query consisting of two words–both of which must be in Google’s dictionary, and without quotation marks–that returns a single result. A successful Googlewhack returns ‘Results 1-1 of 1′. Googlewhacking is the pastime of seeking such a result. A person attempting to find a Googlewhack is known as a Googlewhacker.
Cloaking is a black hat search engine optimization (SEO) technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different from that presented to the users’ browser. This is done by delivering content based on the IP addresses or the User-Agent HTTP header of the user requesting the page. When a user is identified as a search engine spider, a server-side script delivers a different version of the web page, one that contains content not present on the visible page. The purpose of cloaking is to deceive search engines so they display the page when it would not otherwise be displayed.
Doorway pages are web pages that are created for spamdexing, this is, for spamming the index of a search engine by inserting results for particular phrases with the purpose of sending you to a different page. They are also known as landing pages, bridge pages, portal pages, zebra pages (a humorous arbitrary coinage by Jill Whalen of High Rankings Advisor), jump pages, gateway pages, entry pages and by other names. Doorway pages that redirect visitors without their knowledge use some form of cloaking.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doorway_pages

Keyword stuffing is considered by some to be an unethical search engine optimization (SEO) technique, depending on the circumstances involved. Keyword stuffing occurs when a web page is loaded with keywords in the meta tags or in content. The repetition of words in meta tags may explain why many search engines no longer use these tags.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyword_stuffing

Link campaigns are a form of online marketing and is also a method for search engine optimization. A business seeking to increase the number of visitors to its web site can ask its strategic partners, professional organizations, chambers of commerce, suppliers, and customers to add links from their web sites. A link campaign may involve mutual links back and forth between related sites, but it doesn’t have to require the reciprocation of links.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_campaign

Link doping refers to the practice and effects of embedding a large number of gratuitous hyperlinks on a website in exchange for return links. Mainly used when describing weblogs (or blogs), link doping usually implies that a person hyperlinks to sites he or she has never visited in return for a place on the website’s blogroll for the sole purpose of inflating the apparent popularity of his or her website. Since the PageRank algorithms of many web directories and search engines rely on the number of hyperlinks to a website to determine its importance or influence, link doping can result in a high placement or ranking for the offending website (see also Google bomb or Google wash).
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_doping

A reciprocal link is a mutual link between two objects, commonly between two websites in order to ensure mutual traffic. Example: Alice and Bob have websites. If Bob’s website links to Alice’s website, and Alice’s website links to Bob’s website, the websites are reciprocally linked.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocal_link

A scraper site is a website that pulls all of its information from other websites using web scraping. In essence, no part of a scraper site is original. A search engine is not an example of a scraper site. Sites such as Yahoo and Google scrape content from other websites and index the content so you can search the index by keywords. Search engines then display snippets of the original site content which they have scraped in response to your search.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scraper_site

A server farm is a collection of computer servers usually maintained by an enterprise to accomplish server needs far beyond the capability of one machine. Often, server farms will have both a primary and a backup server allocated to a single task, so that in the event of the failure of the primary server, a backup server will take over the primary server’s function.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_farm

Spam in blogs (also called simply blog spam or comment spam) is a form of spamdexing. It is done by automatically posting random comments, promoting commercial services, to blogs, wikis, guestbooks, or other publicly accessible online discussion boards. Any web application that accepts and displays hyperlinks submitted by visitors may be a target.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_in_blogs

The Hilltop algorithm is a patented algorithm created by Krishna Bharath and George A. Mihaila of the University of Toronto. The algorithm is used to find topic relevant documents to the particular keyword topic.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilltop_algorithm

PageRank is a link analysis algorithm which assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of “measuring” its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is also called the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E).
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank

Search engine optimization (SEO), considered by many to be a subset of search engine marketing, is a term used to describe a process of improving the volume of traffic to a web site from search engines, usually in “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Those efforts may also be seen in more narrow vertical search engines involving areas such as local search. Many site owners and consultants engaging in SEO attempt to pursue qualified visitors to a site, and the quality of visitor traffic can be measured by how often a visitor using a specific keyword phrase leads to a desired conversion action, such as making a purchase, viewing or downloading a certain page, requesting further information, signing up for a newsletter, or taking some other specific action.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

A web crawler (also known as a Web spider or Web robot) is a program or automated script which browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner. Other less frequently used names for Web crawlers are ants, automatic indexers, bots, and worms (Kobayashi and Takeda, 2000).
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_spider

Progressive enhancement is a label for a particular strategy of Web design that emphasizes accessibility, semantic markup, and external stylesheet and scripting technologies, in a layered fashion that allows everyone to access the basic content and functionality of a Web page, using any browser or Internet connection, while also enabling those with better bandwidth or more advanced browser software to experience an enhanced version of the page.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_enhancement

Content negotiation is a mechanism defined in the HTTP specification that makes it possible to serve different versions of a document (or more generally, a resource) at the same URL, so that user agents can choose which version fit their capabilities the best. One of the most classical uses of this mechanism is to serve an image as both GIF and PNG, so that a browser that doesn’t understand PNG can still display the GIF version. To summarize how this works, it’s enough to say that user agents are supposed to send an HTTP header (Accept) with the various MIME types they understand and with indications of how well they understand it. Then, the server replies with the version of the resource that fits the user agents’ needs.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_negotiation

A DNSBL (definition below) is a means by which an Internet site may publish a list of IP addresses that some people may want to avoid and in a format which can be easily queried by computer programs on the Internet. The technology is built on top of the Internet DNS or Domain Name System. DNSBLs are chiefly used to publish lists of addresses linked to spamming. Most mail transport agent (mail server) software can be configured to reject or flag messages which have been sent from a site listed on one or more such lists.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNSBL

Referer spam is a kind of spamdexing (spamming aimed at search engines). The technique involves making repeated web site requests using a fake referer url that points to the site the spammer wishes to advertise. Sites that publicize their access logs, including referer statistics, will then end up linking to the spammer’s site, which will in turn be indexed by the search engines as they crawl the access logs.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referer_spam

Spam blogs, sometimes referred to by the neologism splogs, are artificially created weblog sites which the author uses to promote affiliated websites or to increase the search engine rankings of associated sites. The purpose of a splog can be to increase the PageRank or backlink portfolio of affiliate websites, to artificially inflate paid ad impressions from visitors, and/or use the blog as a link outlet to get new sites indexed. Spam blogs are usually a type of scraper site, where content is often either Inauthentic Text or merely stolen from other websites. These blogs usually contain an high number of links to sites associated with the splog creator which are often disreputable or otherwise useless websites.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_blog

Sping is short for ’spam ping’, and is related to fraudulent pings from blogs using trackbacks, called trackback spam. Pings are messages sent from blog and publishing tools to a centralized network service (Ping Server) providing notification of newly published posts or content. Spings, or ping spam, are pings that are sent from spam blogs, or are sometimes multiple pings in a short interval from a legitimate source, often tens or hundreds per minute, due to misconfigured software, or a wish to make the content coming from the source appear fresh.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sping

A webring in general is a collection of websites from around the Internet joined together in a circular structure. When used to improve search engine rankings, webrings can be considered a search engine optimization technique.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_ring

The Spamhaus Project is a completely volunteer effort founded by Steve Linford in 1998 that aims to track e-mail spammers and spam-related activity. It is named for the anti-spam jargon term coined by Linford, spamhaus, a pseudo-German expression for an ISP or other firm which spams or willingly provides service to spammers.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spamhaus_Project

To prevent e-mail spam, both end users and administrators of e-mail systems use various anti-spam techniques. None of the techniques is a complete solution to the spam problem, and each has trade offs between incorrectly rejecting legitimate e-mail vs. not rejecting all spam, and associated costs in time and effort.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-spam_techniques_%28e-mail%29

A spambot is a program designed to collect e-mail addresses from the Internet in order to build mailing lists for sending unsolicited e-mail, also known as spam. A spambot is a type of web crawler, that can gather e-mail addresses from Web sites, newsgroups, special-interest group (SIG) postings, and chat-room conversations. Because e-mail addresses have a distinctive format, spambots are easy to write. A number of legislators in the U.S. are reported to be devising laws that would outlaw the spambot.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spambot

Address munging is the practice of disguising, or munging, an e-mail address to prevent it being automatically collected and used as a target for people and organisations who send unsolicited bulk e-mail. Address munging is intended to disguise an e-mail address in a way that prevents computer software seeing the real address, or even any address at all, but still allows a human reader to reconstruct the original and contact the author: an email address such as, “no-one@example.com”, becomes “no-one at example dot com”. Any e-mail address posted in public is likely to be automatically collected by computer software used by bulk emailers—a process known as e-mail address harvesting—and addresses posted on webpages, Usenet or chat rooms are particularly vulnerable to this.[1] Private e-mail sent between individuals is highly unlikely to be collected, but e-mail sent to a mailing list that is archived and made available via the web or passed onto a Usenet news server and made public, may eventually be scanned and collected.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_munging

Ensuring a valid identity on an e-mail has become a vital first step in stopping spam, forgery, fraud, and even more serious crimes. An essential second step will be ensuring the entity has a good reputation. Unfortunately, the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) that handles most e-mail today was designed in an era when users of the Internet were mostly honest techies who expected others to be equally honest. This article will explain how e-mail identities are forged and the steps that are being taken now to prevent it. [1].
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_authentication

A Directory Harvest Attack or DHA is a technique used by spammers in an attempt to find e-mail addresses. It is usually carried out by generating a flood of messages to multiple addresses at a mail server that is known to be valid. Most often, these attacks are targeted at corporations since they are likely to have a standard format for official e-mail aliases (i.e. jdoe(at) company.com, johnd(at)company.com, or johndoe(at)company.com).
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directory_Harvest_Attack

SpamCop is a free spam reporting service, allowing recipients of unsolicited bulk email (UBE) and unsolicited commercial email (UCE) to report the offense to the sender’s Internet Service Provider (ISP), and sometimes their web host. SpamCop uses these reports from its volunteers to compile a DNSBL of computers sending spam called the “SpamCop Blocking List” (SCBL) and websites referenced in the spam are used to create the Spam URI Realtime Blocklists (SURBL) RHSBL. SpamCop has tools for ISPs to manage reports sent to them, see details on the individual spam messages and to mark spam incidences as being resolved. Paying members can configure how reports are sent and avoid a “nag” screen, among other benefits. There are also forums for discussing these services.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpamCop

Dictionary spamming is a spamming technique where spammers attempt to guess E-mail addresses by using a dictionary attack based on adding plausible names as prefixes to known domain names.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary_spamming

An autodialer is an electronic device that can automatically dial telephone numbers to communicate between any two points in the telephone, mobile phone and pager networks. Once the call has been established (through the telephone exchange) the autodialer will announce verbal messages or transmit digital data (like SMS messages) to the called party.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodialer

Mobile phone spam is a form of spamming directed at the text messaging service of a mobile phone. It is described as mobile spamming or SMS spam, but is most frequently referred to as m-spam.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_spam

VoIP spam is an as-yet non-existent problem which has nonetheless received a great deal of attention from marketers and the trade press. Some pundits have taken to referring to it as SPIT (for “Spam over Internet Telephony”); however, this neologism is not used by VoIP technicians.[citation needed]Voice over IP systems, like e-mail and other Internet applications, are susceptible to abuse by malicious parties who initiate unsolicited and unwanted communications. Telemarketers, prank callers, and other telephone system abusers are likely to target VoIP systems increasingly, particularly if VoIP tends to supplant conventional telephony.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VoIP_spam

In computing, phishing is a criminal activity using social engineering techniques.[1] Phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out using email or an instant message,[2] although phone contact has been used as well.[3] Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, and technical measures.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

An advance fee fraud is a confidence trick in which the target is persuaded to advance relatively small sums of money in the hope of realizing a much larger gain. Among the variations on this type of scam are the Nigerian Letter (or 419 fraud) and “The Spanish Prisoner.”
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud

A typical lottery scam begins with an unexpected email notification that “You have won!” a large sum of money in a lottery. The recipient of the message–the target of the scam–is usually told to keep the notice secret, “due to a mix-up in some of the names and numbers,” and to contact a “claims agent.” After contacting the agent, the target of the scam will be asked to pay “processing fees” or “transfer charges” so that the winnings can be distributed, but will of course never receive any lottery payment. Many email lottery scams use the names of legitimate lottery organizations, but this does not mean the legitimate organizations are in any way involved with the scams.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottery_scam

“Make money fast” is a title of an electronically forwarded chain letter which became so infamous that the term is now used to describe all sorts of chain letters forwarded over the Internet, by e-mail spam or Usenet newsgroups. In anti-spammer slang, the name is often abbreviated “MMF”.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_money_fast

“Pump and dump” (also known as “Stock Dump” and “Hype and Dump Manipulation”) is a term used to describe a form of financial fraud that typically involves artificially inflating the price of a stock or other security through untrue or exaggerated promotion (creating artificial demand), in order to sell stock, previously purchased cheaply, at the inflated price. When the promotion stops or flaws in the promotion are exposed, the artificial demand is removed, causing a collapse in the price of the investment, leaving many investors out of pocket.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_and_dump

Messaging spam, sometimes called SPIM, is a type of spam targeting users of instant messaging services.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messaging_spam

Newsgroup spam is a type of spam where the targets are Usenet newsgroups.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsgroup_spam

Flyposting is the act of placing advertising posters or flyers in illegal places. In the US, these posters are known as bandit signs, snipe signs, or street spam.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyposting

The term spam is widely believed to have derived from the SPAM sketch of the BBC television comedy series “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”. [2]
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_spamming

The Network Abuse Clearinghouse assembles data on what its sponsors see as misuse of the Internet. It makes available (via web, dns, and whois) a database for tracking relevant contacts and provides an intermediary service for registered users to forward complaints by e-mail.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Abuse_Clearinghouse

A spider trap (or crawler trap) is a set of web pages that may intentionally or unintentionally be used to cause a web crawler or search bot to make an infinite number of requests or cause a poorly constructed crawler to crash. Web crawlers are also called web spiders from which the name is derived. Spider traps may be created to “catch” spambots or other crawlers that waste a website’s bandwidth. They may also be created unintentionally by calendars that use dynamic pages with links that continually point to the next day or year.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_trap

E-mail spam is a subset of spam that involves sending nearly identical messages to numerous recipients by e-mail.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam