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And So It Begins

Submitted by chip on Sun, 30-Nov-2003 - 10:10 pm
in

I knew once Congress passed the CAN-SPAM act it would only be a matter of time before the spammers responded. The response I expected would be for them to start sending new forms of spam. See, the problem is Congress didn't pass a law that outlawed spam. Instead, they passed one that legalized it and prescribed how spammers could go about doing it.

Tonight's spam load contained one with this paragraph:

It is not our intent tosend unwanted mail. This e-Mail issent under the FederalRegulatory Laws of the United States..If this message has reached you in error, and you wish to block furthermailings, simply click BLOCK ADDRESS and send a blank message.

This spam appears to be completely compliant with the CAN-SPAM legislation.

I've got a feeling I'll be seeing a lot more of these this holiday season. Consider it a little gift from our elected legislators.

Comments

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re: And So It Begins

Submitted by Mark Linimon on Mon, 01-Dec-2003 - 5:22 am.

I wonder exactly how long it will take the spamassassin authors to include these Magic Phrases in their reject rules.

If it's more than 72 hours, I am going to be disappointed.

re: And So It Begins

Submitted by Mike on Wed, 10-Dec-2003 - 12:25 pm.

As much as I dislike the CAN-SPAM law, the vast majority of the spam I recieve (or filter out) would be a violation of that Act or a host of other federal and state laws (even despite preemption).

Most states, for example, have consumer protection laws that broadly prohibit "misleading" consumer marketing. I can't think of the last spam I received that complied with the requirement.

So, there's still plenty of weapons in our arsenal, despite the best efforts of the U.S. Congress to take them away from us.

re: And So It Begins

Submitted by Lister on Sat, 03-Jan-2004 - 5:55 am.

It's particularly bad when you consider that clicking on the "Never send me anything again you bastards," option, you are verifiying that this is in fact a valid email address that their company can sell knowledge of to all of the OTHER spammers out there.
Jerks...