The Scourge of the Net: SPAM

Berglund Authority Level 3

by Jesse Snyder <snyderjw@pacificu.edu>
BS, Computer Science, Pacific University


Index:

.01 Introduction
.02 Prevention First
.03 Let the Spamming Begin
.04 If You Are Serious
.05 Conclusion


Introduction (back to index)

You wake up. You take start the coffee, and take a shower. You get out, grab some breakfast and check your e-mail. What did you get today? A letter from Mom? Some urgent message from work?

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... and that is just the beginning. Now you must sort through your inbox, throwing away e-mail you didn't ask for and waste valuable time. Some of this junk is even made to look like it has been sent from people you know.

Unless you've been living in a virtual cave the past 5 years, the chances are you've experienced the bane of Internet, "SPAM," or "junk e-mail." SPAM is nothing more than random, unsolicited email. SPAMing is a form of net abuse. <http://www.cybernothing.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq.html> In the physical world, junk mail is kept to a minimum since someone has to pay for postage on every piece of mail that gets sent out. However, with nearly unlimited online resources, companies can send an almost infinite amount of advertisements. The stink of it, is that the sender has to pay relatively little to send out SPAM. The infrastructure absorbs most of the cost of sending SPAM out, which is most likely your ISP. This drives up your cost to use the Net. In a way, every piece of SPAM you get (and every other piece of SPAM you don't get) costs you something.

While SPAM is a monster that is probably impossible to kill, there are some preventative measures we can take to stop the filling of our inboxes with schemes on getting rich, free diplomas, weight loss plans and pornography.

Prevention First (back to index)

First off, if you've never received a piece of SPAM, consider yourself lucky. I just recently opened a new email account and didn't check it for a while. When I finally did check it, about a week later, I had already accumulated 10 pieces of SPAM. That's really not too bad. Compare that figure with the amount of SPAM I get in my Hotmail account I've have for about 6 years. On a "good" day, I'll get well over 40 pieces of junk e-mail. I spend at least 15 minutes a day, sorting out SPAM from e-mail from family members, friends, and work. I'm sure people who get many more unsolicited emails than I do. Take for example, the SPAM horror story of "Nadine." <http://www.honet.com/Nadine/>

At one point in my online endeavors, I signed up for some Auction service that has since gone bankrupt. One thing companies like to do cover their loss when they go bankrupt is sell their e-mail databases. No doubt, my email was on that list, and that list has been passed around the Net to would be SPAMers for years. The lesson learned? Never sign up for anything with your primary email account.

You might be asking yourself, "But I only have one email account... what should I do?" The answer is simple; get multiple email accounts. Check out the Free Email Providers Guide <http://www.fepg.net/providers.html> for a listing of most free email services. The best part about these web based email services, is that you can check your email from just about anywhere that has an Internet connection. You can use this "SPAM account" when you have to sign up for anything online. If it gets over SPAMed, you can always abandon ship and get a new one.

Failing companies aren't the only way SPAMers can get your email address. Some companies actually make money from selling your address to others. If you sign up for anything online that requires your email address, read the EULA (End User License Agreement) or other legal documentation that comes with the service. I can't stress this enough. If they hint at selling your email, or that your email is not completely private, steer clear of it. The sad part is, some places will still state that your email address is confidential, and sell it off anyway. Be very cautious and always use an alternate account. I can't say this enough times.

Then we have email harvesters, or software that combs the web for any email addresses and stores them in a database. If you put your email address on the web, it's entirely possible it has already been picked up. Lets not forget the Usenet. Ever posted a message on the Usenet? Odd are your email address is stored on a SPAM machine somewhere.

In any event, don't let it get to you. We'll cover how to get rid of SPAM in a second. For now, sign up for a free email account and use it for everything other than friends, family and work. Prevention is always the best medicine.

Let the SPAMing Begin (back to index)

Okay, so maybe you're in the same boat as me, and it's too late; the SPAMing has already begun. What steps can you take to make it stop? Be prepared for a long, uphill battle. Why do I say this? If you're in as deep as me, it's virtually impossible to stop the SPAM short of getting a new email account. However, getting a new account means telling everyone you know about your new address and changing every reference you've made to your email on various websites. Changing email accounts, especially one you've had for awhile is a lot more work one might think.

Any email client worth it's salt, even Hotmail, has some kind of junk mail filtering function. Even local email clients (clients that run on your machine as software), such as Outlook and Eudora have junk mail filters. (In Outlook, it's under Tools, then Junk Mail filter. <http://www.macinstruct.com/tutorials/junk/> has more in-depth info on this) However, this is more of a defensive measure, and by using any kind of filter, it's possible you are throwing away mail you should be getting. On top of this, in my experience at least, these filters have been mostly ineffective. I have mine jacked up to nearly the highest filtering setting, and I still receive 40 SPAMs a day.

In addition to blockage from your email software, you can download or purchase junk mail filters (usually in the form of plug-ins) that work with your for the most part have had mixed reviews.

So what other options are there? I always say the best defense is a good offense. This is true with SPAM. One way to combat SPAM is to unsubscribe to every single piece of junk email that you get. However, this was the "impossible" battle I was speaking of earlier. If you get as much SPAM as I do, you could spend all day and night unsubscribing and still get SPAM. In fact, you might even get more.

I tried the unsubscribing tactic. I was only getting around 20 or so SPAMs a day. I decided I would unsubscribe from all the SPAM I was getting. However, I could only unsubscribe to about 70% of the emails I was getting. I jumped though the hoops, but still got mail from the SPAMers. In addition, some SPAM didn't have an unsubscribe option.

You think that is bad? Some SPAMers take unsubscribing as a sign that someone is actually looking at the mail they've been sending. You may think you're unsubscribing, but really, you're signing yourself up for even more email. It's just plain silly, illegal, and extremely frustrating.

My advice? If you are getting only a small amount of SPAM, I would go ahead and unsubscribe. Most of my experience with friends, family, and co-workers has been that unsubscibing generally works, however, if you are receiving a lot of SPAM, you might be wasting your time. The SPAMage shouldn't be that bad if you have an alternate email account. You signed up for that alternate account, right?

If You Are Serious... (back to index)

If all your options have been exhausted, and your back is against the wall, the next step is to start reporting SPAMers to websites like <http://www.spamcop.net>. This website is great for keeping track of SPAMers and deterring them from send out their hordes of e-junk. I suggest you check this site out if you've been getting a lot of SPAM, as it will really be worth your time. Another great website is <http://www.stopspam.org/>. This site also has SPAM tracking and reporting, along with a whole slough of resources regarding SPAM.

The last step you may have to take is some form of legal action. There have been a number of cases of legal action taken against SPAMers. These are mostly limited to companies, usually large companies like AOL. However, if you are business that relies on it's email or bandwidth to generate income (such as an e-shop) you might have a case. For example, take the case of America Online, Inc. vs. Cyber Promotions, Inc. <http://www.epic.org/free_speech/cyberp_v_aol.html> It was ruled in a Pennsylvania District court that "The Court declares that Cyber Promotions, Inc. does not have a right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or under the Constitutions of Pennsylvania and Virginia to send unsolicited e-mail advertisements over the Internet to members of America Online, Inc. and, as a result, America Online, Inc. may block any attempts by Cyber Promotions, Inc. to do so." There are a number of other similar cases that have been won against SPAMers. It's good to know that in some regard, the government can help with this online scourge if necessary.

Conclusion (back to index)

SPAMing is the most annoying thing to ever hit the Net. As the SPAMers technology gets better, and as SPAMers figure out how to get around filters better, things will only get worse for us. I see SPAM as a kind of e-terrorism. By receiving SPAM, some of our basic rights have been violated. Imagine a Child who checks his or her email and receives a SPAM containing pornography. What is the SPAMer really accomplishing? SPAMers even use illegal tactics to spread their messages. Lucky for us, we can fight SPAM in a number of ways. The war isn't hopeless.

Let me finish by addressing the SPAMers. SPAMers- you are doing nothing but making the Net worse for everyone. You can't possibly be making money from your schemes. Even if one person in a million so much as looks at your SPAM, was it really worth it? As a whole, you are ruining our ability to check our email, which is the most basic action any net user can take. By filling it with hundreds of advertisements a day, not only do you make us hate what you are hawking, but you also make the vehicle with which you expect us to read your advertisements impossible to use. You are shooting yourself in the foot, while at the same time shooting the rest of us in the head.

Jesse Snyder can be reached at <snyderjw@pacificu.edu>

SPAM™ is a registered trademark of Hormel Foods.