SWITCH IMAGE COMMUNICATION

Until the mid 1990's SPAM was that pesky lunchmeat you got from a can. Loved by some and hated by others. In the mid 1990's a new type of spam (not produced by the Hormel Meat Company) was introduced which is loved by few and hated by most.

Spam is the unsolicited commercial email (UCE) or internet junk mail received by millions of people everyday. It is the electronic bulk mailing of advertisements, chain letters and get rich schemes (and many more) to unsuspecting internet users. Just like the junk mail you receive from the post office it is annoying and a waste of time, but unlike that junk mail spam is inexpensive to send and can be costly to your ISP or corporate system administrator.

One of the first reported cases of spam was when a message was posted to all the members of all the newsgroups at a University (over 6000 people) in 1994. Seems like an innocent however, extreme desire to get his message out. But what this first mass mailing did was to open the floodgates on directing UCE to people who did not ask for the information. You may say that is what the internet is about - the ability to express one's thoughts and/or make a lively hood in the ecommerce industry. And you are correct, however many people feel it should not be forced upon them by ending up in the emails!

How do you get spammed? Without getting technical, because there are many sites which will explain it better than I can, an advertiser will acquire a list of email address, newsgroup and/or bulletin boards and send their message out electronically once to hundreds or thousands of folks. Easy to stop you say, send a message back to the spammer and tell them "NO"! Not quite - you've just told the spammer they have a good address for further emails. How do they acquire those lists, some are purchased through mass marketers or through "bots" that run through the public internet finding addresses on web pages or newsgroups and bulletin boards. So beware if you leave your address in a public domain space!

The absolute prevention of spam is impossible. As talented as software developers are in developing anti-spam software the many spammers have become very sophisticated too. There are however, steps that can and should be taken. Most internet browser and ISP have included in their software some sort of an anti-spam filter; you must activate the filter. These filters scan mail as it comes in and checks for known spammers or titles that make statements like "Get Rich Quick", then it automatically put it into the trash or a "spam" file. Filters attached to corporate email accounts may go a step further and not allow the email into the system at all.

Let's say you have an unsolicited commercial email that you want to do more with than delete, what do you do? There are organizations which, if you send them the email, will attempt to track the sender down and place it on lists of known spammers which are then posted for mail filters to use. There is also the Spam Recycling Center (see attached sites) which collects them for industry and legislative data and allows them to be used for anti-spam software development.
What can you do legally? There is currently no federal regulations banning unsolicited commercial email, the House has passed a bill but nothing has been done in the Senate. Locally, may laws have been passed and are being enforced with an average fine of $50 per unwanted mailing. So check with your local Attorney General and state officials to see where you state is in the fight against spam.

Spam or unsolicited commercial email (UCE) will probably never go away, there will always be the hustler that is bright enough to work the system and interested enough to make money. It is the individual internet user responsibility to be aware of spam and its best prevention.

Interesting Sites

CAUSE - Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
URL: http://www.cauce.org
This grass roots non-profit site works for a legal solution to the spam problem. In plain English it explains the problem and keeps you updated on current bills in the US Congress and Senate. They offer advice to those that have been spammed as well as data that has been collected. They are one of the sponsors of the Spam Recycling Center and have set up similar organizations in Europe and India.

FREE - Forum for Responsible and Ethical Email
URL: http://www.spamfree.org
Similar to CAUSE, this grass roots organization aims its activities at the consumer and how they can deal with the problem of spam. Good information on filtering software. They have a great archive on articles concerning UCE that date back to 1997. Also one of the sponsors of the Spam Recycling Center.

MAPS - Mail Abuse Prevention Systems
URL: http://www.mail-abuse.org
A more technical site aimed at educating ISP's and system administrators on how to enforce proper etiquette and eliminate spam in their organization. They also provide information to ecommerence companies on how they could inadvertently spam or be used to spam unsuspecting users. Currently they are discussing the email greeting card industry. They maintain and will distribute to ISP's a list of IP addresses of known spammers. They also provide instructions on how to be taken of the list if inadvertently placed on it.

Choose Your Mail - Spam Recycling Center
URL: http://www.chooseyourmail.com/spamindex.cfm
This is an online marketing company, which states it will provide you with anonymity when you participate with their direct mailing. It has links with CAUSE and FREE (the FREE link at this site is not the correct URL) and is also a sponsor of the Spam Recycling Center. It offers suggestion in deterring spam as well as offers to free anti-spam software. Also provided are the results of a 15-day survey done in March 2000 of people who visited the Spam Recycling Center. Pretty interesting and worth reading.

Almanac of Internet Politics - Chapter 4 - Spam
URL: http://www.speakout.com/activism/policy
This is a higher level, policy maker type of site. It is a thoughtful and thought provoking essay on what is the problem, who does it, comments pro and con on the act of spamming, solutions and arguments. It will make you think and has links to other thoughtful sites.

WSRCC spam fighting archives
URL: http://www.wsrcc.com/spam/
WSRCC is a UNIX consulting firm, which maintains this list of known spammers. You can find many sites like this one out there, however this one gave advice on how to remove your name from the list as well as great links. Very technical and the list is just that lists of IP addresses.

Earthlink - Email Protection Agency (EPA)
URL: http://www.earthlink.net/epa/
Its resources and information is available to all, not just subscribers. This site provides information to the casual computer user on how to prevent and deal with spam. It is very user friendly and provides links to free and inexpensive downloadable software at c|net. The link to c|net provides a tremendous amount of easy to read information.

Spam tracking 101 - (for newbies)
URL: http://www.rahul.net/falk/mailtrack101.html
The old (1997) site is dated but still appropriate for a newbie. It takes a detailed and humorous look at a spam message and explains it in very specific but everyday language. It helped me understand the components of any message.

Fighting Mail Spam Using Version 8.8 Sendmail
URL: http://www-rcd.cc.purdue.edu/~af5/spam.html
This plain English users guide for Version 8.8 Sendmail is dated but was able to explain the "thinking" behind a mail filter. The software as well as the users guide are intended for system administrators but is in user friendly terms.

Humor - how can you look into spam and not find humor?
Spam Roasters Club
URL: http://www.spamroasters.com
After the frustration of spam has worn off hopefully you can find some humor. This site shares some of the more humorous spams. Sit back, relax and chuckle.

SPAM Corporate Info
URL: http://www.spam.com
The official Hormel Meat Company site for SPAM. It provides information about cooking SPAM, SPAM stuff and even a fan club.

The Amazing SPAM Homepage
URL: http://www.cusd.claremont.edu/~mrosenbl/spam.html
Not the official site but all you wanted to know and were afraid to ask.

Welcome to the SPAM Catalog
URL: http://www.spamgift.com/store/commerce.cgi
Yes, all the SPAM paraphernalia you could want - clothes, toys, hats, clocks, pins and even SPAM itself.