State of Spam Demonstrates Government's Incompetence

[TromboneAl]

The effect of the government's efforts to limit spam is a good example of the problems with government.

They passed the CAN-SPAM act, but it was worthless due to congress' concessions to the advertising industry. It had absolutely no effect on spam.

I realize that the international nature of spamming makes it difficult to solve the problem, but if they'd passed a law that said, essentially:

"Unsolicited commercial email is illegal"

Perhaps that law would have had a chance.

Current State of Spam

[wabmester]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl "Unsolicited commercial email is illegal"

We have such a law here in WA. Completely ineffective.

[Deetso]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl "Unsolicited commercial email is illegal" Perhaps that law would have had a chance. Current State of Spam

Here in oregon we have a law against speeding. It hasnt seemed to work yet.

What does seem to work is when people get a little older or have kids or just realize they dont want to die in a flaming pile of metal.

I guess the only point I have is Im not sure the government can really be the one blamed for SPAM.

[lets-retire]

I must be showing my age, but I thought you were refferring to the canned meat product.

[TromboneAl]

Quote:

I guess the only point I have is Im not sure the government can really be the one blamed for SPAM.

Probably true. But I can't help thinking that if spammers faced a credible threat of a large fine or jail time, they'd think twice.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'd be perfectly happy with a rule that all spam had to have the word "advertisement" (or some such) in the subject line and the sender having to pay some sort of fee to have it delivered that would be pooled and distributed amongst ISPs with the intent of reducing access fees.

$10,000 fine that goes to the pool for each infringement.

[Jay_Gatsby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl Probably true. But I can't help thinking that if spammers faced a credible threat of a large fine or jail time, they'd think twice.

I'm not too familiar with the CAN-SPAM Act, but I recall some states have laws that allow private individuals receiving unsolicited faxes to sue offenders for a set amount of money, and also allow the lawyers to collect their attorneys fees from the offenders. It is this latter part that makes such laws so appealing for enforcement by the private bar, and would put a kibosh on unsolicited spam so fast it would make your head spin. It certainly did for unsolicited faxes.

[wabmester]

The problem is identifying the spammers. Script kiddies take control over a bunch of computers on the net, and use those as spam relays. Makes them pretty much untraceable, so laws have no effect.

[HFWR]

How else would I learn about those Romanian porn sites?

[Zipper]

We can joke all we want about spam, but these pr*cks cost all of us time and $$$$.

[wabmester]

The most important thing to do is to keep your email address private. If it's already exposed on the web someplace, it's too late. You've already been harvested. Get a new email address. Even better, get two. A public address (for ecommerce, etc), and a private address for family and friends.

And use a good spam filter. Mine sucks, so I'll let somebody else recommend one.

[Deetso]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wab And use a good spam filter. Mine sucks, so I'll let somebody else recommend one.

The filter on my Gmail account works great. I get more spam at that address than others but in all honesty, 99 percent seems to get into the right place.

[TromboneAl]

I'll second that on gmail's filter.

[poboy]

http://www.mailwasher.net/

I have been using this free program for about a year. Minimizes to bottom of screen, blinks when I have messages that I can preview without opening my outlook express. I can receive, delete, or blacklist the message. Been satisfied and again, I use the free version.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wab The problem is identifying the spammers. Script kiddies take control over a bunch of computers on the net, and use those as spam relays. Makes them pretty much untraceable, so laws have no effect.

Hmm...seems to me that somewhere along the line theres an 800#, an email address or a web site.

Seems pretty straightforward to trace them at that point.

[Alex]

WHy the hell is it the governments business to limit e-mail spam? Should the gov't come and wipe yer arse too? Gimme a break!!

[wabmester]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute Fuzzy Bunny Hmm...seems to me that somewhere along the line theres an 800#, an email address or a web site. Seems pretty straightforward to trace them at that point.

I haven't been reading much of it, but I think it's mostly phishing and pr0n related these days. Just points you to more hijacked puters.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

All I get are stuff pointing me to somewhere to buy something.

But maybe if I cruised more porn sites I'd get some of that.

[wabmester]

I have some public email addresses that get literally 100's of spam emails per day. I just looked at the last dozen or so. Mostly viruses (attachments), a bunch of porn sites, some offers for pirated software, and one ad for "Doggy Steps." The ad had a "suite" address in FL and a website.

[samclem]

I've heard of proposals to levy a very small (e.g. 1 cent) charge for every email sent to a US registered email account (like email postage). The fees would be used to pay for government enforcement of internet-related laws (privacy violation investigations, kiddie porn, etc) . More importantly, spammers couldn't turn a profit if emails cost 1 cent each to send.

I think, though, that this would be exceptionally hard to implement. Who would collect the fee, assure compliance, etc.