Legal Recourse Against Spammers You May Know?

xrepete asks: "I have been getting spammed by a legitimate company for the last five months. I have gone to their site to ask to be removed, and sent several e-mails to various address asking to be removed from their mailing list. I have been totally ignored. We all get spam from individuals we can't identify, but what recourse do we have if we actually _can_ identify them. I've heard that it is illegal for a company to not allow you to opt-out of marketing spam, but I can find any information about how to go about it." This was last touched on over three years ago, but recent events have shown that the new spam laws may have better teeth. Are there other things we can do to curb the e-mail abuses of the companies we do business with?

Comments

How to deal with spammers in Washington State

[Speequinox]

This site gives you step-by-step instructions:
http://www.smallclaim.info/

Some ways to fight spam

[Valleyman]

o Don't ever use your primary email address
when subscribing to newsletters/registering
at a forum/posting on a guestbook that does
not allow anonymous comments. Don't forget
that emails are DISPOSABLE! Make as many
as you want, and if one is getting tons of
spam, just stop checking it and get another!
Just make sure to keep a primary email for
you and your friends (nothing more!).
o Set up filters that auto-delete subjects
with words like mortgage, refinance,
singles, dating, fat, weight, viagra, free,
several sexual expletives. Be sure to tell
your friends about them so their jokes
aren't deleted.
o If a spammer DOES get through, just take
whatever there is from "@spammersdomain.ext"
and add it to a second list of filters called
"spammin' fools" or something.
o Here's an interesting piece of literature
I found regarding the fight against spam:
Look for "Subject: ADMIN: For Your Spam Only" within page

Hope this helps!

Certified Mail

[iamweezman]

I work for the post office. You want to send it certified not registered. Certified is legal proof of mailing and it is the only special service that you can add to postage that will stand in court.

I doubt most judges would ignore a registered receipt, but registered mail is for secure mailing (mailing the hope diamond and such), and is not legal proof of mailing.

Re:Address

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe sendmail's defaults allow you to send mail to "account+foo@example.com" where foo is any arbitrary string.

No offense, but the spammers aren't that stupid. That's like people who write "bobNOSPAM@foo.com" thinking that will work. Most of the spam harvesting software knows about the "X+Y@" sendmail division and removes the "+Y" portion from the collection.

Similar problem

[yamla]

I had a similar problem with Microsoft. Actually, with their XBox advertising list. They ignored my removal requests (four), my complaint to their support address, and eventually even a written cease-and-desist letter. Luckily, I found Microsoft was a member of eTrust. Dealing with eTrust, in comparison, was a pleasure. I got a response back from eTrust within minutes asking for more details (and a copy of one or more of the spam). They forwarded it on to Microsoft who responded within a day, apologising for the problem, claiming they had never had a copy of the cease-and-desist letter forwarded to their department (quite possible), and explaining what they had done to ensure I would not receive any more spam from them. This certainly seems to have worked so far. I found it sad that a C&D letter didn't work but I'd strongly recommend dealing with eTrust if you can.

Now, I think the company you are dealing with is not an eTrust member. You may still be able to contact eTrust for help, though. I know at least half their complaints are for non-members so it may be worth it, I'm not sure.

Slashdot HAS covered this

[ottothecow]

I think this is it

Man from michigan sued sears and won under a junk fax law

Re:Address

[Yottabyte84]

I personaly use both spamgourmet, and sneakemail.