Re:Forward your spam to the FTC
on
FTC vs Spammers
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· Score: 1
Then aren't you the one committing a crime because you're identifying yourself as someone you're not?
I mean, c'mon. You have to draw the line somehwere. If you need information from a website that needs your email address - give them an address you created specifically to receive these types of things or go to another website.
It's like, if you signed up for overstock.com - you automatically get "opted-in" and therefore have an on-going contract with that company. They're entitled to send you whatever they want until you specifically ask them to not receive anything. If they sell your address to someone else for money, then the "opt-in" contract passes to that new company. (Based on the results of a utah spam case).
I don't see how you can complain. If you don't like it - don't use the site in question. I think that's why there's a huge gray area dealing with spam and why it's so hard to create legislation. What consitutes criminaly activity versus companies legally trying to use the internet as a medium to market themselves?
I've also noticed that lately spammers have been putting a 1 pixel wide image in the email message itself.
(I.e. img src=spammers_server/pixel.gif?email=youremailaddre ss )
If the message gets opened or previewed - the pixel is pulled from the spammers server and a web log is created with your email address in it. Even viewing a potential spam email can verify your email address to the spammer as a valid account.
I think it comes down proving that you were the one behind the computer.
For example, if you upload something to a website. Sure, weblogs are created that point to a specific IP and then the authorities can say "This computer did this". But how do they prove that you were the one at the keyboard at the time of the infraction?
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Then aren't you the one committing a crime because you're identifying yourself as someone you're not?
I mean, c'mon. You have to draw the line somehwere. If you need information from a website that needs your email address - give them an address you created specifically to receive these types of things or go to another website.
It's like, if you signed up for overstock.com - you automatically get "opted-in" and therefore have an on-going contract with that company. They're entitled to send you whatever they want until you specifically ask them to not receive anything. If they sell your address to someone else for money, then the "opt-in" contract passes to that new company. (Based on the results of a utah spam case).
I don't see how you can complain. If you don't like it - don't use the site in question. I think that's why there's a huge gray area dealing with spam and why it's so hard to create legislation. What consitutes criminaly activity versus companies legally trying to use the internet as a medium to market themselves?
I've also noticed that lately spammers have been putting a 1 pixel wide image in the email message itself. (I.e. img src=spammers_server/pixel.gif?email=youremailaddre ss )
If the message gets opened or previewed - the pixel is pulled from the spammers server and a web log is created with your email address in it. Even viewing a potential spam email can verify your email address to the spammer as a valid account.
I think it comes down proving that you were the one behind the computer. For example, if you upload something to a website. Sure, weblogs are created that point to a specific IP and then the authorities can say "This computer did this". But how do they prove that you were the one at the keyboard at the time of the infraction?