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Forced Into Spamming By Your Employer?
SOS asks: "My employer has asked me to setup a 'SPAM super boxen' in which all it does all day is spew out spam. We have setup a bogus domain, and brought in several broadband internet connections from several ISPs in which to do this nasty deed from. I have insisted at the very least that we actually do setup a system in which people can take there name off the list by simply replying to the spam email. But I would rather not do this at all, while still being employed by this company. The impression management is under is that 'spam works'. Its very simple, they spend $2000 for a server and internet connection, have there system admin spend a few hours setting it up, and if they only gain 5 clients from 50,000 emails, it will be well worth it. If one ISP shuts us down, we switch to another one the same day. What argument can I use to somehow dislodge this idea from there head, and possibly implant something a little more sensible, while staying employed?" I always liken SPAM to telemarketers. Everyone hates being associated with telemarketers. However if that trick doesn't work and the legalese surrounding SPAM isn't enough of an argument against it, what other arguments are likely to gain the attention of your neighborhood PHB?
I'd say drop a line to the RSS or RBL people and the regular spam buster houses and tell them what is going to happen. Or at least tell maybe tell us what the domains are or the subjects of the spams are going to be so we can add them to our own procmailrc files. :)
Spam is illegal in many jurisdictions. People have been prosecuted. Unless you have a reliable system to avoid sending spam to people in those jurisdictions -- and I'm certain you don't -- you're going to break the law.
Life's too short to work for jerks and criminals. You've got skills, and despite what everyone says, your skills are still marketable. Take advantage of that, and trade up to a better job.
.. really easy.
1) Do you think you can change the attitude of the company? Only you would know this. If you feel it's something you can educate people about, by all means try.
2) Don't forget that it's not your company; you are an employee, and it's their way or the highway. You can indicate to them that you will not do this, and that if that means you lose your job, that's fine. Or you can simply say 'no' and quit. That's your call.
3) You can do the job you are being paid to do. Spam is not illegal where you are? Your employer is paying for their bandwidth? I hate spam as much as the next guy... but only you can decide how far to go to protect what you think is right.
I'm in the same boat. My employer actually does b2b spam. Their clients contract us to do web-based guest satisfaction surveys, and we have to spam our clients' customer lists to ask for them to fill out a survey. At least we're only spamming customers, but it's still heartbreaking.
I'm in a worse position, though, because we're actually getting paid to do it. No matter how much I complain, it still brings money directly in the door, and it's not like I can bite the hand that feeds me.
Spam really is a moneymaker, just like snail mail spam is, and in these dark days of dot-com deadpools, you can't afford to pick your customers. I can't exactly point at any other profitable web-based business and say, "See, this is how you're supposed to do it."
What's your damage, Heather?
... because I'm the admin for a domain AND the tech director, so I have a policy that anyone who spams looses their email address for a week. I've not had any spam come out of my domain since that policy (actually I have, a customer's box was an open relay, but I fixed it quickly and efficiently.
:)
However, as a bonus to those in my company who might feel they are loosing a sales channel here, I remind them of a few facts.
1) If you spam, you are likely to hit at least one person that's highly knowledgeable, and just as unethical as you are. This opens you up to a high chance of unwanted cracker attention (I'd use the word hacker here, it terrifies them more
2) It's amazing just how much BAD will these things generate, and some people will go out of their way to get your legitimate ISP to shut you down as well. A lot of ISPs will do this for fear of hitting the RBL.
3) Speaking of the RBL, there are some lists that will include you for taking part in this kind of behaviour. If you are traced (and that's by no means impossible), you could loose your email and internet lines.
Give us your domain so we can blackhole you now, and you can take that to your management.
t
XML causes global warming.
The expectation was that after consistently being defaced every time spam was sent out, the boss would think that spam was more trouble than it was worth. As it turned out, we never had to resort to this plan, since the company was driven into the ground first.
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Take the lists of addresses and emails, pretend you are really spamming thousands, while in reality you only spam a couple of accounts (yours and your boss's)... fake the logs
Make them think "spam: bad, it never attracts clients"
Also, tell your ISPs that you are working at a company that only got their Internet connection to spam from.... get the ISP to terminate the account after a few days... get this arranged with their head admin. Make it look totally real.
Ever need an online dictionary?
I would prefer that you list your boss's home phone number on here so that we can call him and reason with him... ;-)
I was placed in a similar position when I was CTO of a company and the marketing weenies decided to start a spamathon.
Remember that the main motivator is money when you're dealing with marketing/sales people. If ethics won't sell them on the spam=BAD equation, then use money to do it. I wrote a lengthy memo (I don't recall whether I saved a copy or not) describing the possible negative side-effects of starting a spam campaign.
The primary negative was revenge. Ask them how they'd like to have their 800# shut down by people calling to complain, or how they'd like their main Web site (not just the spam machine) and network compromised and destroyed by anti-spam hackers. Ask how they'd like the fax machine to be constantly busy and out of paper. Ask how they feel about hauling in the lawyers to respond to complaints that they've violated California's anti-spam law (you don't have to be in California--you just have to spam someone in California). Even if they can show they didn't violate the law, it'll cost money to fight it.
When I made this argument to the marketing guy, he said that if someone did that to us, they'd be breaking the law. I told him that wouldn't prevent people from doing it! I also had him read CAUCE propoganda and other anti-spam materials.
I'm not sure whether he ended up seeing my point, or gave up out of frustration having to deal with me, but he gave up.