Spam

The bad Texas spam bill I recently discussed was on a bullet train for passage. Tonight, that train got derailed.

A new anti-spam bill is sailing through the Texas legislature. There's just one problem: it's a really bad bill. Is it better than nothing? I fear not. I think it can be fixed, but I'm not sure the legislature is willing to do so. In its current state I think we're better without.

Link: Spam's Cost To Business Escalates. (Washington Post)

Oh golly, is it that time again? Seems every 2-3 months, the conventional thinking on email spam changes. The most recent meme was, "Spam filtering will save us all." Which, of course, it won't, so I'm pleased to see the clock has run out on that one. The new spam meme appears to be, "Spam has grown to be nearly half of all email."

This was reported recently on MSNBC. The Washington Post article linked at the top of this entry furthers that. The article quotes me, but somewhat surprisingly on the topic of managing spamtraps, for which my contribution is miniscule. I am pleased, however, to see the focus return to the burdensome costs of spam.

Links: Microsoft Going after Hotmail Spammers (News.com, Feb 18), Microsoft Planning more Spam Suits (News.com, Feb 19)

In a previous article, I discussed the magnitude of the dictionary attack problem at MSN/Hotmail. This week, Microsoft announced plans to file several "John Doe" lawsuits against spammers that harvest member addresses by this method.

Thing are getting so desperate in Austin that the city boosters are resorting to spam.

To: chris sherman <chris [at] greateraustin [dot] com>
From: "chris sherman @ GreaterAustin" <chris [at] GreaterAustin [dot] com>
Subject: Invite: Austin Small Business Growth Conference this Tuesday Feb 18
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 18:52:05 -0600

Hi,

The Greater Austin Business Growth Conference takes place this coming Tuesday, February 18 at the Austin Convention Center. The conference is a one-day event for small business owners, founders and operators in Central Texas looking to grow and expand their businesses.
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Featured speakers at the spammer's conference include city councilmember Will Wynn and ice cream mogul Amy Simmons. How unfortunate to see these people aligning themselves with spammers.

I've received this terribly obnoxious spam several times over the past week.

To: "" <chip [at] unicom [dot] com>
From: "Pavol Viluda" <www [dot] designgalaxy [dot] net [at] mail [dot] soaustin [dot] net>
Subject: STOP UGLY WEBSITES! USE PREMADE WEBDESIGN SERVICES
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2003 19:48:02 +0000

I have recently founded your website. Design is bad. We are promoting new great resource of website templates www.designgalaxy.net. Use my template to build good website.
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This spammer is badly in need of either English lessons or a bitchslap. Maybe both.

Link: Spam Composition

It's a delight to see somebody taking on one of the most troubling parts of the spam epidemic: that atrocious grammar! (thanks Justin)

Link: FTC to Hold Three Day Public Spam Workshop

The FTC is scheduling a 3-day workshop this spring (April 30 through May 2) to "address the proliferation of unsolicited commercial e-mail and to explore the technical, legal, and financial issues associated with it."

The last time the FTC held hearings on the spam issue was all the way back in 1997. That workshop lasted for just half a day. The increase to three days alone indicates the seriousness of the current spam problem.

Back then the FTC failed to respond aggressively, so the results were discouraging. That workshop closed with the FTC encouraging the marketing and ISP industries to develop their own regulations to manage the problem. As I noted in a recent posting, the idea that industry can be depended on to watch out for consumer interests is an exercise in wacky pre-bust thinking. I hope this time the FTC is more willing to exercise its regulatory capabilities.

Link: TRUSTe on spam and industry adopting best practices

TRUSTe wants to do for the spam problem what they've done for Internet privacy. This concerns me. I'm not concerned they may fail. I'm shaking in fear they may succeed.

Link: DMA Sues FTC Over "Do Not Call" List

"The FTC is singling out this form of advertising now, what will be next?" said H. Robert Wientzen, the [Direct Marketing Association's] president-CEO.

Spam, Robby. Spam.