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FTC Levies Fine Against Big-league Spammers
An anonymous reader writes "The FTC said it has closed down a spam operation in California that sent millions of unwanted messages to online users across the country and fined the companies involved about $2.4 million. The settlement doesn't shut down the businesses and, based on the financial records of the defendants, the judgment will be suspended upon payment of $475,000."
From TFA headline:
Then in the third paragraph:
So they shut down the "spam operation" but didn't shut down "the business".
Fat lot of good that will do.
Skivvy Niner? Email me!
HEY! Look left just ONE MORE TIME!
Ever since I heard about the FTC's spam address I forwarded all my spam to it, (what made through the school's filters at least,) even after hearing detracting opinions about it. Good to know my contribution to the effort may not have been entirely in vain.
Well, in Denmark we still have some protection of the consumers. A wine retail company recently agreed to pay a fine of 40,000 DKR (roughly $6200 or 5300) for sending about 950 unsolicited e-mails.
I think this is the way it should be. As long as it pays to send SPAM, it will be sent - it's a plain and simple business calculation.
Msft does this all time, they blantantly break the law, and when they get fined: they yawn and throw somebody some pocket change.
Toxic waste dumpers used to this also. It was cheaper to just pay the fine for dumping toxic waste, than to pay for the expensive process of correct disposal.
My guess in a $475 fine every five years, or so, is worth it. I expect the spammers to be right back at it.
These "entities" that get busted are only fined some arbitrary number, and since they rake in a lot more from their profitable spamming business, then there's no incentive to stop. Right? Why don't they do an investigation and find out how much profit was earned from their spamming ventures, and make that their fine? Better yet, they could just find out how much assets they have, and take all. Wouldn't that stop it?
They could make it completely illegal with penalties up to and including taking every last penny you have. So what? Won't they just move out of the country and/or use clever Internet spoofing to hide themselves? Of course it's hard to get people to send you money when they don't know where/who you are... but just because I own some real estate company, and just because 10 million spams went out yesterday advertising that company's product, doesn't mean that I was the one that sent the spam. Without officially knowing the source, as long as I can keep hiding that, I'm in the clear. If they just shutdown the company that the spam advertised, it would become a great way to get your competition shut down!
So here's an idea... why don't we start educating the public about how to recognize spam and NOT TO BUY WHAT THEY'RE SELLING!!!! The day this stops is the day it becomes not profitable. Ultimately, it's Joe Dufus in Bumsville, USA who actually says "Wow, my penis must be really small and/or impotent. I guess my wife got me on some pfvizagra mailing list... I better buy some from this company to make her happy!" or, "Wow, I can get a $300k loan at a flat rate of 5%!! I don't know what that means, but it sounds like a hell of a deal! I better call them..."
The people who keep spam alive are the people who buy into it. That should be the target of our anti-spam efforts; trying to stop people from sending spam is like trying to stop the Internet altogether (since that's about what it would take, if you're fighting it from that end). We've got to get people to quit buying this shit!
*shrug* I'm not sure how true that is. I used to work for a pretty big, just-barely-legal, bulk email farm. The overhead can actually be pretty high, since you have to keep several networks ready in case too many spam complaints get your upstream to shut you down (and keep in mind, these were mailings that the people did actually request and confirm to receive and had our physical address and phone number in every footer -- I can't imagine how many more complaints the really illegal shit must get). Unless you can talk your provider into making you the abuse contact for your block (at which point the stakes get really high, because you can go to jail if you start screwing around then), you have to move about once every six months.
We basically had two kinds of clients: people who essentially wanted a cheaper Lyris for their mailing list (things like music groups sending out their tour announcements, churches sending out their activities announcements, demagogic political blowhards sending out their vitriolic screeds, etc.), and people who were hawking products (everything from frozen crabcakes to cool little mouse-cord-holder-stands -- I still have one of those -- to "Get Free Money From the Government" books). The first kind of customer was pretty steady and almost never gave us spam complaints (we ended up giving them their own network). The second kind of customer not only generated a lot of spam complaints (and contractually had to pay us $100 for each one), but usually went broke after a few months. They got good receive and open rates, and even OK click-through, but people just didn't buy the shit.
I left the "industry" a while ago in a fit of conscience, but what I learned might be a bit sobering for those who suggest we attack the companies advertising via spam. If my experience is normal, that won't matter because they all go out of business anyways. There's money in bulk email for the companies sending out the email, and for their carriers (who get to charge more for pink contracts), but rarely if ever for the people selling stuff. It's just there's always some new jackass ready to take his place once a seller fails.
All's true that is mistrusted
I understand that a lot of people aren't particularly computer-savvy, but if someone came up to you on the street and tried to sell you a dozen spy cameras you wouldn't think twice before saying no.
I'll second that, the first two you list I've had to block for my company. I found a really good way to filter most of this crap, is by the sender. How many people have recipe in their name? Some legitimate companies might, but that's why this crap gets quarantined and not deleted. Another good one to block by is by the html tag to hide text, can't remember what it is. I never could understand all the gibberish in some of these emails, I view them as plain text, then one day I was looking at one in html and saw what they were doing. Very nIAgera falls GReat Axis, use the html tag to hide the lowercase letters and you get VIAGRA. Kind of cool in a way, but should be able to block by those and have no regrets. I'm sick of dealing with this crap. For a company of about 40, we get around 1000 a day. I can usually block about %80 to %90, so that limits things quite a bit, but I get so tired of people whining about getting 10 or 20 a day and not being able to pass that little threshhold, with a combination of keywords and bayesian filtering.
As part of the settlement negotiation, their attorney said that they are considering filing bankruptcy. My response was, I couldn't be happier than have them bankrupt and living out of cardboard boxes, and if my suit does not do it, then I will help others do it.
3 spammers down, too lots left.
Fight Spammers!