Cornucopia of Spam

Eric Savage writes "The IETF, through IRTF, has formed an Anti-Spam Research Group. If there is any hope for a technical solution the problem, it appears the first significant step has been taken. More info here in itworld and here in ComputerWorld." Three more exciting spam related posts inside, including news from the Nevada legislature regarding spam, Arkansas dislike of the meaty email and "when students go bad" torklugnutz writes "The NV state assembly just voted 41-0 in favor of a bill which allows spam recipients to collect up to $500 per piece of spam. The new law also requires ADV to be added to the subject line so that recipients can more easilly identify unwanted ads. In addition, spoofing of sender's email address or having an invalid return address is made illegal. The old law imposed a $10 fine on spammers, but required prosecuters to collect it. This law will, more than likely, increase my chances of reading the spam I get so that I can try to cash in. So, maybe I CAN make an incredible amount of money from this "Amazing Offer""

And in Arkansas: A.G. Russell writes "With House Bill 1008, Subtitled "Unsolicited Commercial and Sexually Explicit Electronic Mail Fair Practices Act." Arkansas looks to join other states that have criminal and cival legislation in place to deal with spam. Can we help them craft this?"

And from academia: mansemat writes "Seems spammers are using a new tactic these days by paying students to send spam over univeristy networks. This particular student will be disciplined by losing his computing privileges, and being educated on the policy he violated. One can only hope the education includes being subscribed to every pr0n, male enhancement, mortage, etc. spam on the planet." Should have booted the miscreant.

Comments

Re:Spam loopholes...

[Spoing]

Who with any sense and experience even attempts to be unsubscribed?

I never sign up for anything...so if I get spam it's because the company sending it is unethical. What chance do I have that, if I ask, they will all the sudden will say "Gee, we're sorry! We honestly don't know why we spamed you in the first place!".

Case in point: I did try to unsubscribe from Staples (yep, the office store) spam mailings (through Doubleclick's spam mail).

I bent over backward and gave them the benifit of the doubt that they were somehow justified in thinking that they could spam a specific test account. So, I asked -- on line and by phone -- to have my domain removed. I did this about once every month as new spam arrived.

After a while, I informed Staples that they would be reported to Spamcop and other anti-spam services if they did not cease sending the spam. After 8 months of giving them leeway, I gave up asking.

No surprise, a few weeks after sending thier spams to spam reporting services, they stopped. So, in total, it took most of a year to get them to stop and then only after turning the screws on them. Screw Stapes. Screw Doubleclick.