New netizens often run across strange words and phrases that seem to make absolutely no sense at all. But wait a minute, here's a word you recognize; SPAM -- an editable meat product in a can. Find out what Spam really means in regards to the Internet and why it's important for you to know about it.

It's human nature. Everyone likes to get mail. You look forward to the postman every day. The same with email. Everyone online loves to get email.

But wait a minute - what's this? You got 14 new messages? Wow! You quickly download the new messages and open them only to find that 10 of them are notes on how you can make a bazillion dollars in 3 minutes if you send $49.95 to the address listed. You can even use your credit card by calling 1-800-MKMONEY.

Welcome, my friend. You've just been Spammed.

Spam is the equivalent of junk postal bulk mail and, it's becoming a big problem with online users. PC World magazine reports that just one bulk email firm sends out 4 million email messages a day. A network of aggressive bulk email firms is responsible for over 15 million each day congesting Internet resources to the max.

Now for the really bad news. It isn't going to go away or even let up. As a matter of fact, Spam is getting more common as companies discover how to use it. This is only the beginning.

Compared to bulk postal mail, bulk email is very inexpensive to send. All a spammer needs is a pitch, a bulk mailing program, a mailing list, and an account with an Internet service provider.

Ahh, you say. But where does the spammer get the list? Funny you should ask. You have probably unknowingly given him your email address. You may have even given him the necessary information he needs to target his message.

Spammers can glean addresses from such resources as chat room logs, newsgroup headers, and membership directories. A new way is to cull addresses from forms visitors fill out on Web pages. Unknown numbers of companies sell email address lists for the sole purpose of spamming.

Now, the good news. Most ISPs reject spam and discourage those who send it by cutting off service if you do spam. Of course, millions of messages can be sent out before action is taken, but just knowing that most ISPs offer at least some protection can prohibit some from trying to spam. The federal government is stepping in, along with a handful of states, to offer some protection.

The state's laws, however, would only protect you from spam the originates and end within the covered state.

Two federal laws have been proposed that might put the breaks on at least some spam. One would outlaw spam entirely - the other would force spammers to include a valid return address. (Some bulk email programs have the option of creating false headers making it impossible to respond.) The word Advertisement would have to be included in the header making it easy for those who are targeted to filter it out with software running on our ISP's server.

None of these proposals would stop the inflow of spam from outside the U.S. Spammers who want to bombard us with it would simply arrange to have it sent from outside the U.S. borders.

Meanwhile, here are a few tips that you can use to reduce spam from your inbox:

• AOL users should delete their user profile.
• If you use and post on Usenet Newsgroups should put their email address at the end of their posting not in the From field. (Spammers use robots that gather email addresses from posting headers.)
• When supplying data to a Web site by filling out a form, look for a check box that indicates you wish to receive information about products of interest to you. Uncheck that box.
• PC World Online has a free utility called Spam Hater you can download for free that will attempt to trace bulk email headers and allow you to respond to be taken off the list.