Spam

CAUCE – link to coalition against unsolicited commercial email

Spam – what is it?

Spam is that annoying unsolicited junk email that you frequently find in you email mailbox. The origins and sender are usually disguised so that the receiver and others will find it hard to detect who exactly sent the message and from where it was sent. Usually the message is some type of advertisement with an offer that is too good to believe.

Why is spam a problem?

A quote from the CAUCE site

“Unsolicited commercial email is the leading complaint of Internet users. But junk e-mail is more than just annoying, it costs Internet users and Internet-based businesses millions, even billions, per year. Junk e-mail is "postage due" marketing; it's like a telemarketer calling you collect. The economics of junk e-mail encourages massive abuse and because junk

e-mailers can get into the business very cheaply, the volume of junk e-mail is increasing every day.”

This becomes a problem because the internet gets “clogged” with all this junk email. Bandwidths of internet providers can get consumed with such junk email. The cost of operations can be passed on to consumers or the consumer may have to deal with slow access times. Also most spam is some type of scheme – those too good to be true ideas. If you are suck in by the false promises of spam, you are probably only out a few dollars. But by only stealing a small amount from many people “spammers” can stand to make a large profit with no retribution from the people who get ripped off.

Ways to prevent spam?

Everyone would like to prevent spam unfortunately it is difficult to prevent all spam from entering your email box. On the CAUCE website there is an explanation of what not to do. Some of these include:

1) Do not reply to spammers – trying to take your name off a mailing list will only indicate to spammers that your account is still current.

2) Filtering - this is not recommended because it makes the server work harder to filter out spam. In some respects I disagree with this statement because I may be willing to pay a little extra to my provider, if I could be guaranteed less spam.

3) Just delete it – this does nothing. You will continue to get spam

4) Strike back – Striking back will just clog up the bandwidth with more spam. This would be lowering yourself to the spammer’s level. This is also illegal.

Some things to keep in mind:

1) Try to limit the availability of your email address. Most forms include a line for email address. This information is probably optionally – don’t include your address – it will cut down on spam.

I have seen requests for email address on forms for from making furniture purchases to forms for registering for 10K runs.

2) I have un-subscribed to some internet sites with success. If the site is a legitimate business site they will comply with taking your name off an email list.

3) Filtering may be part of your provider’s server. I believe this is a good thing even though the CAUCE website says this does little to reduce spam. Filtering can cut down on your spam.

4) Some email software also provides filtering to reduce spam – you can use one of these to help reduce the irritation of spam. Click here to see a list of filtered mailboxes.

5) Because I use AOL as my internet provider, I know that AOL gives an option in their mailboxes to select an email then click a tab to report spam.

6) Most providers do not want spammers on their servers. Click here to see how to track a spammer and what to do once you find out the address of origin.

A final way to prevent spam suggested by the CAUCE website is through legal action. It is unfortunate at this time there is no legal means of preventing spam. The law seems to be tricky here, spammers claim constitutional rights of free speech.

Guide to citizen action.

The CAUCE website suggests becoming a member of their cause. They also

suggest to write your congressman in order to get legislation started against spam.

There has been some successful legislation against FAX spam. Court rulings have upheld such legislation on the grounds that if businesses receive large quantities of FAX spam, legitimate business can not be conducted properly.