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Virginia Anti-Spam Law; FTC Forum on Spam
kiwimate writes "According to this press release, the state of Virginia has just passed a statute making 'the worst, most egregious and fraudulent kinds of spam' legally actionable. And yes, this includes header forging. The article reads like a big AOL PR piece in some places -- the VA governor led the signing at the AOL HQ in Dulles. The story also states this comes on the eve of the first-ever FTC forum on spam in Washington D.C." The FTC also made the insightful discovery that most spam is fraudulent in some fashion.
This is the one that's always gotten me. It's obviously one of the worst possible things in spam. But how do you then track down who happens to be sending it and punish them for it?
This may be good for Spam originating in the US, for the residents of VA, however Spamers from other countries could still fill our inboxes.
Will they drive a spear through the heart of the spammer? I would move back to Virginia just to be part of that.
sulli
RTFJ.
So apparently we can use our 'common sense' to figure out what's 'the worst, most egregious and fraudulent kinds of spam'. I'm not sure I feel safe in a system where such a statute can be passed. The definition is too open for interpretation. Today it's porn spam with forged headers, tomorrow it's legitimate advertising getting outlawed.
If the state representatives don't have the balls to outlaw all spam outright, perhaps the residents of Virginia could grow some balls and vote these jokers out of office.
I have been pwned because my
The convicted spammers should be forced to use AOL the rest of their lives! :)
And in further news, a minimum of two-thirds of all types of intrusive advertising contain false claims--telephone cold-calls, loud tv commercials, the crap that hides the funnies in the sunday newspaper, the daily pound of paper cluttering your mailbox, you name it. The more intrusive the advertising, the more fraudulent the content.
Remain calm! All is well!
OK, so were they planning to sample more than 3 typical e-mail accounts worth of daily spam?
I hope there can be a war on spam that is as effective as the war on drugs or the war on terrorism or the war on poverty.
This wont put even a tiny dent in spam. In Virginia or any where else. What it will do is set a precedent. This is one huge step in the right direction. Now you can write your local representative with "If Virginia can do it, why can't State X?" Lets take this spam victory and run with it.
I hate to say it, but if AOL can throw their weight around to rid me of spam then I'll stop bitching every time I get an AOL cd in the mail :)
:)
I wonder though- is there a place that we could report spam to the virginia prosecutors? Perhaps our state attorney general could setup a spam email and state residents could forward their spam there for the prosecutors to go after
Virginia has had an anti-spam law since 1997, which is part of the Virginia Computer Crimes Act (VA Code 18.2-152). It makes spam with forged headers illegal: http://www.spamlaws.com/state/va.html
AOL, Verizon, and other large ISPs based in VA have been suing under this law for years (though they almost always go to federal court, pursuant to U.S.C. 85 1332). I have burninated a few spammers in small claims court under this law as well (I was actually in court today suing etracks.com). The law allows the recipient to seek civil relief for the lesser of $10/message or $25,000/day. For ISPs, it's the greater of the two.
they signed the anti-spam law at the AOL HQ?
Isn't that one of the seven signs, or something?
Or
"If, therefore, any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone."
~Epictetus
I think Ralsky would get that many bounces in an hour, if he did not forge headers, and hijack mail servers.
Penalty is only $10.00 per email or $25K, whichever is less.
Not enough financial damage to spammers, but it is a start. If the statutory damages were higher, it might have a legitimate claim to being the toughest in the country.
Wind under Thy Wings
Amber
Suppose you did.
Suppose you did not.
You don't need to find who is behind the scene. Here are the steps to punish spammers without knowing them:
1. Write a small program that every user can run at home, on the seti model. Let's call it spammerSucker.
2. Identify an email as spam (this part is easy)
3. Find the website of the spammer (The email is generally full of http links)
4. Add the URL in the centralized DB of spammerSucker.
5. In minutes, millons of DSL/Cable users running spammerSucker are downloading every byte out of their server, initiating millions of sockets per second.
6. Their server is "slashdotted", and no one can access it.
Such a campaign would just result in destroying your website when you send a spam and so would make it a lot more dangerous for a company to send spam.
The danger is actually in step 2, because you don't want to blinbly suck any website...
Write boring code, not shiny code!
1. Beat the crap out of the disc and package. Stab it, crush it, bend it, shatter it, etc.
2. Either send the original package, or the package in a sandwich bag back by writing "Unsolicited, return to sender!" on it and placing it back in the mailbox.
I haven't recieved a CD in several months, down from once a week or so.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
spam is in no way fraud. i make $50,000 a day posting to slashdot from home. you can too, email me back at ahk235hk2@yahoo.com. if that doesn't work, try my work email at 235hlj235hl2@hotmail.com.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
The article reads like a big AOL PR piece in some places -- the VA governor led the signing at the AOL HQ in Dulles.
Hm, thats what I want, my Legislators delivering law directly from the BoardRoom. The same people who send you "buy this penis pump" emails will, next month, be sitting next to this Virginian Politician at a $5000-a-plate fundraiser... and the viscious cycle begins again.
Next thing you know, someone's gonna say the Pope wears a funny hat.
the coolest club on
Duuuh. That's because nobody selling something legitimate wants the negative side effects of spam- mainly, the disgust it causes. Hell hath no fury like a consumer who's just been spammed for a product; they'll probably, even out of spite, go for your competition, if they just so happen to be in the market for your item. Remember those stupid little remote control cars? They learned the hard way that spam didn't work; retailers reported a backlash from the spam, people coming up to them and chewing out -the store employees- for the spam other resellers were sending.
Please help metamoderate.
I forgot that AOL has a huge datacenter up North from here. Hmm.....
Mmmm. Virginia Spam! The best kind. They cure it different there, Smithfield I think.
"And after a while, you can work on points for style.
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake,
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile." Rodger Waters
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain with all your metadata.
Unfortunately you're probably closer to the truth than they would have us believe. While the manufacturers, at least a chunk of them, could claim these do no harm (unless taken in absurd quantities, which nobody really knows how much as they aren't regulated or adequately tested), it's hard to disprove whether or not they do no good. So, it's like selling sugar pills, which can be very profitable, hence so much spam regarding all these great meds and supplements.
Spammers, of course, have used far from ethical tactics so they don't go to capitals very well armed to defend themselves, even if they could tote in some 'campaign contributions.'
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
If any spammers are reading this, let me tell you about the Virginia correctional system. If you are lucky you will go to the big house. If they put you on the farm you are fucked. Most penal farms in Va grow their own food and cut their own fire wood, etc. You will come out tan and fit, my friend. I taught literacy in Wise County at the facility there. No slack for misdemeanors and light felonies. They also operate road gangs (no chains. Work is time off from your sentence with good behavior) with the Boss standing over you with a 12-gauge full of rocksalt if you decide to make like Cool Hand Luke. Also, the Virginia State Police are ruthlessly efficient and will get you. This was the best state to implement anti-spam legislation if we want spammers to hurt.
PS. It is "The Commonwealth of Virginia" not the "State of Virginia." I didn't get my hands whacked with a ruler by Mrs. Underwood to have y'all malign my beloved home with the lowly name of "state."
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
An interesting debate arose from a story I wrote earlier this week in which I published screenshots from a spammer's mailboxes.
One reader complained that this was "hacking" and that it was an unjustifiable action.
In response to that complaint I asked my readers (part-way down the page) whether there was any difference between a spammer trespassing on someone's mailbox with their crap and someone trespassing on the spammer's mailbox to expose their mis-deeds.
Gathering by the responses it appears that the rule of "do unto others" can reasonably applied to spammers and their mailboxes.
The FTC has recently gone even further. They take the position that a beneficiary of the spam is responsible for it unless they took steps to stop it. This covers spamming by "affiliates".
The FTC's position is consistent with decades of false advertising law. The FTC has often prosecuted companies that let their "dealers" lie for them. The FTC has the authority to crack down on spam, and it looks like they're starting to do so.
If nobody ever replied to spam, there'd be no point to it, so maybe it would dry up eventually. People who react to spam are providing the feedback that encourages the spammers to spam on.
-----
For great justice!
Have you ever seen such hogwash?! What, pray are, "a technical characteristics"?! Since when are headers and routing information common to "unsolicited bulk mail", but not "normal e-mail messages"?!Ok, so where do I trun myself in? I've certainly generated $1,000 from a specific transmission (we in the spammer game call it an "invoice") and I (just like tens of thousands of other evil spammers like me) forge headers and alter routing information. For example, I have mailing list managers that alter headers and routing information and then take that single modified message and send it to DOZENS of users! I also send mail from my laptop at home and claim to be me at work and visa versa!
Before tonight I didn't know I was a spammer, but if Virginia says I'm a spammer, I must be one! Is there a reward for turning my evil spammer ass in?
I'd add a smily, but this is just creepy!