It's spam from a server owner's point of view in the broader sense, in that it is "junk requests" instead of legitimate requests, they can be sent as a flood at

It's spam from a server owner's point of view in the broader sense, in that it is "junk requests" instead of legitimate requests, they can be sent as a flood at no cost or consequence to the senders, and it's up to you as the recipient to find a way to filter it all to separate the wheat from the chaff. It's certainly not denial of service, that means something far more specific. One could call it "scraping", but I'd argue the meaning / emphasis is different (it'd be like describing trolling as 'typing'). And "botting" is not a word. :)