Feds Cracking the Whip on Spammers

Britano writes "Fox News is reporting that the FTC has started to go after spammers and online scammers. So the governement has finally started on the side of the consumer. "The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday that is has created a nationwide task force that has already brought 63 law enforcement actions against Web-based scams ranging from auction frauds to bogus cancer-curing sites." Hey, this way we don't have to spend our own money on fighting this problem!"

Comments

I wonder

[CrashRide]

if this page will disappear as fast as the previous repeat about Kazaa...Posted by CmdrTaco on 15:30 3rd April, 2002 from the wow-this-is-crazy dept.

What happened to the other story?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll say it again:

What happened to the other story?

User's Problem

[kkirk007]

One of the alleged scammers the government is investigating is David L. Walker, who is said to have charged between $2,400 and $5,200 on his Web site for a cancer treatment hoax

I understand the desperation that's felt by someone with cancer, but really, what kind of person is going to believe that the miracle cure for cancer is sitting on some shady website and not in the hospitals?

A fool and his money are soon parted...

Help the FTC fighht SPAM.

[www.sorehands.com]

I have automatically directed some SPAM to the FTC. I have an address on my website, for SPAMBOTS to grab. This address has an automitic forward to uce@ftc.gov. Some spammers might be smart enough to filter out .gov, but this avoids the filter.

Devil's Advocate

[Dolohov]

Y'know, as annoying as spam is, the FTC taking action is not necessarily a good thing. For all the complaining people do around here about the increasing corporatization of the Internet, I should think you would notice that the spammers these people are really going after are largely individuals and very small companies. They're not touching the big corporations (Who never spam, of course, just occasionally send out large-scale "commercial" email) who will soon find that with all the small spammer out of the way, people will be far more likely to reply to THEIR spam.

As much as I detest spam, it at least inspires most people to develop BS detectors.

Who's paying again?

[sammy baby]

From the original story:

Hey, this way we don't have to spend our own money on fighting this problem!

Well actually, yeah, we do. The task force will be driven by the FTC, which means that you paid for it in the form of tax dollars. Just like you pay to have a police force and public schools.

This time around, though, instead of those of us who have to deal with spam daily paying to treat the symptoms, the government (and us, by extention) will be paying to attack the disease. Still a step in the right direction.

Re:What an excellent way...

[Tackhead]

> for the government to get it's invasive little paws into the stream of email everywhere! Sounds like an excuse to install "Herbivore". "It's a SPAM-fighter! Honest!" Can't wait to see my tax dollars at work.

You know, I'd much rather have Carnivore being used to track down and exterminate the chronic offenders like A--- R----- (priors for bank fraud) and other spam kingpins.

In fact, if Carnivore can be used by the FBI to put pigfuckers (apologies to those of you who merely fuck pigs) like A--- R----- and E------ H----- and the others like them in prison for running multi-year criminal conspiracies to defraud, then I'd be all for it.

Imagine the headline: DCS-1000 used to capture a guy with a multiyear history of fraud, seize his assets, and put him in jail.

With the technology they've got available for deployment on the 'net, the Feds could end spam in a day and simultaneously gain widespread public support for Carnivore.

Sounds like a win-win to me. Any G-men reading? Wanna pass this on to your PR guys, run a few focus groups/surveys, and see if it'll fly with the public? I've got a dozen Krispy Kremes that says it will. You guys probably have me pegged as one of "those silly privacy nuts". If even someone like me would support Carnivore as a spam-extermination tool, then Lord knows Joe and Jane Q. Public would go for it.

Re:spammers or scammers?

[diverman]

I have always been against the opt-out strategy for SPAM. I thought it was a stupid idea when it was first proposed as a requirement. And my reasons for this opinion... well, they pretty much started showing up immediately. False "opt-out" links.

The government (and anyone else involved in the opt-out standard) was simply beyond stupid. Although, it's a fine line between stupid an blinded by greed. How could anyone NOT see that opt-out had WAY too many loop holes that would take advantage and abuse the helpless public???

If they were to choose for opt-out, they should have gone with a central "trusted" method of removal. They do this with the post office when you want to be removed from junk mailing lists. How can it not have occured to them that the same should apply to junk-email??? Of COURSE scam artists, and corrupt business will flury with the current opt-out standard. Duh!

I would hope that SOMEONE in control would do the whole "SPAM" registration thing, for several reasons.

1. It would be clear which SPAMers are breaking the law and should be targetted (lower cost to enforce).

2. The public would be better protected.

3. We would KNOW when we should click on the "remove me" link to be removed. Or better yet... just have a standard website, with a SPAM code to enter.

Stupid, ignorant, techno-brain-dead government oficials. *sigh* The worst part being that this effect isn't unique to email. Junk mail and telemarketting fall under the same concept, and yet, have protective rules/laws in place.

*sigh*
-Alex

Re:Kill the messenger!

[kylus]

Lots of spam would just drop out of sight if those jerks had to include their real email address.

Of course it would. The spammers would be dragged out into the street and hung with nooses made of their own email lists :)

Seriously though, it's nice in some ways to see that the spam sitution on the net has gotten to a point where the Government can't seem to ignore it anymore. On the other hand, I think it behooves people to help themselves when it comes to spam. Effective use of Procmail can really help a person cut the spam out of their email diets. And with tools like Vipul's Razor, you can help OTHERS avoid getting the same spam in the future.