What Is a Spam Bot? Definition & Defenses
A spam bot is a program designed to either enable or deliver spam. If you've received annoying email messages filled with malicious links, you've likely encountered a spam bot. Similarly, if you've seen unusual or fake social media comments, you've dealt with a spam bot too.
How do spam bots work?
There are three types of spam bots, and they each work a bit differently.
Spam bots can:
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Harvest. These bots crawl through websites and social media accounts, looking for email addresses. The programmer uses those addresses to send bulk email messages. About 320 billion spam email messages hit inboxes every day. Most originate with spam bots.
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Connect. Social media and web-posting accounts originate with simple forms. A spam bot can fill out the required information and begin sharing a note developed by the programmer. Some spam bots use ver