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DMA to Control Spam by DMA Members
SiliconLawyer writes: "The Direct Marketing Association, the major U.S. tradegroup for companies using direct marketing techniques, will reportedly issue guidelines for how its members may and may not use e-mail as a marketing tool. Hopefully, this will influence other marketers toward more responsible use of e-mail. Details are on CNET here."
This has to be a hoax. Next thing I know you'll be posting a story about how Microsoft is going to "specialize in computer security".
Har de har har.
Their "do not call" lists might be scams, but the state government Do Not Call Registry does work. I'm on the NY one and if a telemarketer calls we simply inform them that we're on the registry and they'll be fined $2,000 if they ever call back. Sure there are loopholes (anyplace you've ever done business with can call you), but it's better than nothing. You'd be surprised how quickly some telemarketers react when they hear "...on the Do Not Call Registry..." :-)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I recently spent a few weeks trying to persuade my company's marketing bimbo that no, we could not send unsolicited emails to potential customers.
I used the simple expedient of repeating the reasons against spam over and over again until they began to sink in. I even threatened legal action... ie: I told them that people were starting to successfully prosecute spammers for big money.
Even than, I had to answer the question... "Why would this be illegal? I get this kind of thing all the time."
The sad thing was, until I finally convinced the executive VP to bring the hammer down on the project, I was forced to compose graphical HTML-ized spam emails. Thank god they never saw the light of day.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Two ideas for handling spammers, inspired by User Friendly:
1. Next time you get a "501 compliant spam" that starts off with something like "This is not unsolicited bulk e-mail. Buy me.", flood their server with messages stating "This is not a denial of service attack."
2. The following poem seems to work well:
I got your mail and wrote you back
just so that you'd have no doubt
that if you spam me ever again
your router shall cease to route
I can just see those guidelines now:
"You done taken a wrong turn."
-Bill McKinney, in Deliverance
I mean, my wife gets e-mails telling her to enlarge her penis and I get e-mail telling me to enlarge my breasts....
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
What's the point? A rough guess that 99% of /. readers believe this will do nothing to stop spam. I'm sure reading the article, most of you already knew what the responses would be. So why was the story submitted in the first place?
Who is SiliconLawyer anyway? Well, well, well, wouldn't you know, he's selling something on his website.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
Several years ago, when Canter & Segal (the "green card lawyers" who broke the ice for spammers) were abusing the internet, the DMA announced that they would be creating a "global opt out list". Supposedly, you'd add your address to the list, and no DMA member would ever spam you.
Except it didn't work. Many people at news.admin.net-abuse.email decided to test this list. They created virgin e-mail accounts and submitted the addresses to the DMA opt-out list. Within hours, the accounts were spammed. Since the addresses were never used anywhere other than the DMA list, it became obvious that either the DMA was spamming from that list, or they were making it available to spammers.
If they think I'm going to trust them this time around, they're crazy.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
So one of the ingenious ways they have of preventing spam is by posting a list of addresses on their website... anyone else see a problem with that? It is obvious to me that they don't really care about the spam problem, they just want to look like they are self-regulating so that congress doesn't interfere with their marketing plans.
Add the following to your sendmail.mc file:
/etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/sendmail.cf
FEATURE(dnsbl,`bl.spamcop.net')dnl
then run
m4
Works for me...doesn't block it all, but it seems to help a great deal.
--It's Pimptastic!--
The problem with this is that the majority of the spam mailers do not belong to the DMA. They don't need to follow the rules under this organization. The ones that do belong to this typically (I didn't say always) have an easy opt out policy. Secondly, the corporate spammers have an entity that could be potentially held liable for spam whereas the individual spammers can move and hide easily.
_______________________________
"I'm not Conceited...I'm just a realist..."
How about not making it illegal to spam but make them buy a "license" to spam, and renew it every year... something like $100/yr even would weed out alot of the real clowns, but it wouldn't be so prohibitive as violating their rights.
OK, it's just an spur of the moment thought, so take it easy on me.
I Heart Sorting Networks
- Until I ask to be added -- don't contact me.
- When I ask -- presume it was not me and e-mail me a confirmation request.
- Only, when such a request comes back affirmative can you add me.
DMA, which wants to spam you, does not need to invent its own guidelines. They are already there -- by people, who know more about the Internet and e-mail, than, perhaps, the entire DMA put together...In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.