SANTA may be regretting that he got himself an Internet account, after would-be philanthropists clogged his electronic mail queue with junk.
Four computer companies had agreed to donate 10 cents to charity whenever someone visited a North Pole 鈥渉ome page鈥� on the Net鈥檚 World-Wide Web (). But cybergossip garbled the details, leading some people to think the donation depended on how many e-mail messages Santa received. Sending multiple e-mail messages is almost effortless, so Santa was abruptly bombarded with files of cyberjunk. In Internet parlance, he was 鈥渟pammed鈥�, with more than 42 000 messages waiting one morning.
Organisers purged the files and pleaded for the torrent to stop: 鈥淪anta has all the mail he can handle and asks that you refrain from spamming him,鈥� said a notice posted on the home page after the incident. 鈥淥r there might be a few last-minute transfers to the 鈥榥aughty鈥� list.鈥�
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