In the extended regular expressions used by egrep
{n,}
matches n or more of the preceding item.
So if the variable $SPAMLIMIT contains an integer
\*{$SPAMLIMIT,}
will match a string of literal * at least $SPAMLIMIT long.
e.g.
\*{4,} matches ***** but does not match ***
http://linux.die.net/man/1/egrep