Rebecca Sheehy

SLM 521

Elective 12

What is Spam?

Well, spam is any unsolicited commercial email that an individual did not ask to receive, but got anyways. That includes anything from those get rich quick emails from people that you do not know to the pop-up messages when you access certain websites.

So…What’s the Problem?

· Spam does not cost the sender money, but does cost the receiver money. Whoever gets the spam message has to pay for the online time to read it and get rid of it.

· Email users start with one or two spam emails, but soon that number will reach the hundreds

· The advertised items are worthless and cannot be advertised by any reputable source

· The senders steal unsuspecting individuals identities by pulling them from a mailing list

· The Spam clogs the system and Internet providers are left trying to clean the mess

· The “remove me from your list” instructions rarely ever work

Can I do Anything to Prevent it From Coming My Way?

There are anti-spam filters and firewalls that you can buy and install on your computer that blocks spam messages. There is a preference in your email personal settings where you can choose to receive only mail from people in your address book. One negative aspect about that is that you cannot receive messages from friends if they change their email address or from people you have just met and have not gotten the time to enter their email address into your address book.

Report spam letters to the spammer’s Internet provider. The provider can be determined by looking at the received lines in the email, where the domain names are listed. Contact each of the domain names and inform them that they are being used for spamming purposes. You can also report spams through computer organizations, such as spamcop.

What Can the Government Do?

· The US passed the CAN-SPAM Act, which requires that all commercial emails have a valid postal address and honor unsubscribe requests within a specific timeframe

· There is a Maryland law that prohibits the sending of spam, which contains unauthorized, misleading, or false information. Those who receive the email and those whose identity was forged can sue for $500. This law also allows ISPs to block any email it feels is in violation to the law

· There is talk about creating a national do-not-email list similar to the national do-not-call list.