Spam has become an issue here of late.
Most spam is generated by some type of 'spam bots.' So a person kicking off such spam messages spends a minimal time coding up a post, and then sending it out to 100+ forums he targets via an automated process.
Like legion states - it only takes one or two folks to get suckered and the spammer gains.
I guess spam in increasing on forums because email systems are getting tighter and spam filters are preventing such folks from playing their games.
For the record, if there is spam posted here, the user gets banned and the thread gets deleted. Quite frankly, spam is an annoyance, but it's not as bad as some of the bickering and flamming that goes on around here! Hehe..
Regards,
-Z-man, OT Moderator.