Angela Kays

SLM-521-SU03

Elective # 5 – Spam

6/8/03

What is spam?

Spam is the flooding of the Internet with many copies of the same message. Spammers force a message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive the message. Spam typically comes in the form of commercial advertising. Two examples are dubious products or get rich fast schemes.

There are two types of spam; cancelable Usenet and email spam. Cancelable Usenet is a single message that is sent to 20 or more Usenet newsgroups. These groups have never given their address away but through the reading of newsgroups the address has been copied. The other type of spam is email. This is where an individual message has been sent to a person from a stolen address or from completion of an email search on the web.

The very first suspected case of spam was on May 2, 1978 from the Digital Equipment Corporation. For a list of current blacklisted spammers please see the attached link.

DNS - Based Spam Databases

http://www.declude.com/junkmail/support/ip4r.htm

Why is spam a problem?

The number one reason spam is a problem is because it is annoying and troublesome. Spam not only overloads servers, it also backs up email boxes so that both are unable to be used. The number two reason is that the cost of spam is so much more to the receiver than the actual price paid by the spammers. The cost is also shared by the online services. This price is not only in dollars but also in the time and effort to delete the spam files.

How can we fight spam?

There are many things that we can do to prevent and fight spam. The following is a list of steps to follow if you become a victim of spam.

1. Do not respond to spam email.

2. Use a filter in email.

3. Complain to providers.

4. Do not post email address on your own website.

5. Use a second email address in newsgroups.

6. Do not give address without knowing how it will be used.

7. Never buy anything advertised in a spam email

If all else fails report the spammers. Visit www.spamcop.net They offer free spam reporting and for $30 a year they offer email filtering.

What can the government do to help fight spam?

What can the government do to help? Is spam illegal? Maybe. Spam at this point is not illegal. The problem is that spamming and Internet use have increased in use much faster than laws can be established. There are at this point 18 states that have laws regulated spam. The following is a list of states that have some type of law regulating spam:

California Nevada

Colorado Ohio

Connecticut Oklahoma

Delaware Pennsylvania

Idaho Rhode Island

Illinois Tennessee

Iowa Utah

Louisiana Virginia

Maryland Washington

Missouri West Virginia

North Carolina

For Fun!!!!!!!!

Just for fun, click on the link below, it will take you to the Spam Hall of Sham. Enjoy

http://www.cauce.org/incidents/index.shtml