|
PureBytes Links
Trading Reference Links
|
Jody,
>Hi, I noticed that my mailbox is slowing attracting more and more junk mail
>messages everyday.
That's what happens if you make your e-mail address accessible to
people you don't know. This happens when you register on web sites,
post messages to usenet, sign up for certain mailing lists, and so
on.
I keep a hotmail address for use whenever any site requires my
address. For closed (or limited distribution) lists like this one,
and personal mail I use the address I'm using now.
>Are there laws concerning the solicitation of junk mail?
Some states have laws. It's flat-out illegal in Virginia.
Washington state has a pretty restrictive anti-spam law, under which
citizens have successfully sued spammers for $500 per incident in
small claims courts. California has a weak law, essentially saying
it's OK to spam all you want as long as you provide actual contact
information, no forged headers, and a way to opt-out.
There are no federal laws regarding spam, but spammers will add
disclaimers to their junk that "this email complies with Senate Bill
S6018" or whatever. Yes, there was such a bill, but no, it never
passed.
AOL has successfully sued spammers for tresspass to chattel.
>If so, how do these people get away with it and how can they be caught?
Because they can. And slowly, they are not getting away with it as
easily. Blacklists of problem ISPs and open relays have gotten more
organized and more accepted for use by major internet providers.
The Spam Prevention Early Warning System (see http://www.spews.org
) is probably the most effective thing at the moment. If a block
of IP addresses get listed there, wham! suddenly that service can't
connect to a large portion of the internet, causing customers to
leave in droves, which forces them to boot their spammers and start
enforcing their terms of service.
A spam-free address can be had for a ridiculously low price
from http://www.spamcop.net, a good spam reporting service.
If you want to see what the front lines of the spam war zone looks
like, lurk for a while in the newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.email.
In particular look for threads with SPEWS in the subject, provided
that the threads have two or more connected messages. A pissed
off spammer who has been kicked off too many ISPs has been trying
to take revenge on the newsgroup by flooding it with articles
containing SPEWS in the subject. Just read those to which people
have replied.
--
,|___ Alex Matulich -- alex@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
// +__> Director of Research and Development
// \
//___) Unicorn Research Corporation -- http://unicorn.us.com
|