The right of the individual to not be bothered by unsolicited approaches are receiving much attention from lawmakers in the United States. Consumers now have financial recourse and protection against telemarketers and even those sending bulks messages to fax machines, but what about email?
Junk email is commonly referred to as “spam”, and is responsible for littering our email boxes daily with offers of everything from “Get Rich Quick” schemes to pornography. Even for those Internet users not familiar with the term itself, there can be few of them who have not experienced the problem of Unsolicited Commercial or Bulk Email (UCE/UBE). The father of the Internet, Vint Cerf, did not spare any punches when he characterised spam as “the scourge of electronic-mail and newsgroups on the Internet”.
Spam can be defined in a number of ways, depending on to whom you are talking. Some believe any unsolicited email message sent out in bulk should be classified as spam. Others expand that definition to include any message, which is sent out in an unsolicited manner, whether it is sent in bulk, or not. Most industry pundits choose to concentrate on unsolicited email, which is commercial in nature and which, by its very nature, can result in fraud by email.
Why is spam such a problem for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and users alike? According to CAUCE, the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, the problem can be summarised into five categories. First of all, there is the problem of Cost-Shifting, whereby a spammer shifts his cost of doing business onto other unsuspecting and unwilling partners by utilising their time and resources to do his or her work for them. Then there is the obvious problem of Fraud. An unsuspecting user can be easily taken in by offers of stock in new start-ups and may fall prey to the various pyramid schemes that come into our mailboxes.
Wasting of resources is another chief complaint. Due to the sheer volume of spam mail every day, ISP networks can and do become overcome with trying to deliver junk mail, sometimes to addresses that do not even exist. AOL estimates that 30 percent of the 30 million email messages that travel their network in a day can be classified as spam.
Displacement of normal email is possibly the greatest threat to email as a business tool. If spam is not fought and controlled, e-mail will cease to be an efficient business communication tool and the number one application of the Internet will no longer have a useful purpose.
Obviously, the Annoyance factor is easily recognisable for anyone who has been a victim of spam. Email servers become overrun, dialup lines are tied up by users downloading masses of junk mail and Unsubscribe emails are constantly being bounced due to invalid Reply-to addresses οΎ– all resulting in services that users are paying for being made unavailable or inefficient at best.
Finally, what about the Ethics of spam? As CAUCE puts it, “spam is based on theft of service, fraud and deceit as well as cost shifting to the recipient. The great preponderance of products and services marketed by Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) are of dubious legality. Any business that depends on stealing from its customers, preying on the innocent, and abusing the open standards of the Internet is — and should be — doomed to failure.”
There are several ways by which a user can fight spam. First and foremost, a user must protect his or her own email address. Be sure to read the fine print on the Terms & Conditions of websites before signing up your email address. Second, find an ISP that has implemented spam controls on their network as an invisible but effective method of protecting their subscribers from unscrupulous marketers. Spam controls have no regard for email content, they simply attempt to identify incoming bulk email from untrusted sources, and refuse to accept it.
Your email program may also be able to assist, by using Message Rules in Outlook Express, for example. Third party programs such as SpamKiller and Spam Buster are also very effective at filtering out unwanted email before it even reaches your mailbox. These filtering methods must all be used judiciously; however, to ensure you do not throw out good mail with the junk.
Finally, if you are repeatedly attacked by a particular spammer, you can report the email to your ISP.
Usually, the ISP will have an address set-up similar to abuse@xyz.com to which you should forward your spam complaints.
Thankfully, the outlook is improving on the fight against spam. Recently, several lawsuits in the US against spammers have resulted in large judgements being awarded to the plaintiffs. Until we see stiffer criminal penalties being enforced in the US, however, we must continue to use the tools and safeguards available to protect ourselves from this “scourge of the Internet”.
Paul Hutton-Ashkenny is the president of Systems Resource Group Limited and Bahamas On-Line. Business partners include Cisco Systems, Mitel, HP/Compaq, Microsoft. Questions/comment/info P.O. Box N 3920 Nassau, Bahamas or info@srg.com.bs
