Date: Fri 17-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

iinfo-Internet-Spam-Brand

Full Text:

INTERNET INFO FOR REAL PEOPLE: The Changing Face of Spam

By Bob Brand

Legislators in Washington DC (the Murkowski-Torricelli Bill) and the state of

Washington are attempting to pass laws aimed at reducing the amount of junk

e-mail (called Spam or UCE -- unsolicited commercial e-mail) on the Internet.

Frankly, their intentions are admirable but the effectiveness is highly

questionable.

What has many people on the Net concerned is that these laws will cause more

harm than good by legitimizing Spam. Here is how they would work. The spammer

would get a shot at sending out an advertisement and the receiver would be

burdened with the task of sending an e-mail request to stop further UCE.

Essentially, this would open the floodgates for even more Spam. What a

disaster! Every fly-by-night advertiser would undoubtedly send ads on the Net

rather than buy media advertising or send direct postal mailings.

Postal Increase

Early next year, the postage rate on a first class letter will increase by a

penny. This will make it more tempting than ever for all companies to use the

Internet for mass e-mailings. Already, some politicians have used Spam in

order to reach potential voters. Political consultants are advising their

campaign managers to use it.

As reported in The New York Times , two campaigns in California and one in

North Carolina have used UCE with mixed results. When spamming incidents are

reported in newspapers, the backlash usually hurts the candidates. If it turns

out that Spam can be proven to help a candidate win in a close election, there

will be no end to having our mailboxes full.

Not Just Politicians

The buzz on the Net is that a few legitimate companies have become spammers.

We are still at the point when these tactics are brought to light word is

spread across the Net. This gets back to the originators that their public

image is tarnished. So far, the retaliation against it has been a strong

enough deterrent to slow down wider use. However, we could very well be on a

slippery slope where Spam becomes legitimized.

It is hard to say the degree spamming has permeated. Estimates range as high

as 20 percent of the e-mail handled on the Net is Spam. All this useless

activity comes with the hidden cost of transporting the junk packets through

cyberspace. In addition, there is the wasted time required to delete the

messages from hard drives. We all wind up paying.

If a message states to send an e-mail to get removed from a mass mailing list,

don't do it. This is a common trick to determine if the spammer has found a

"live" prospect. You will just get more Spam. Under no circumstances buy

anything advertised in junk mail. They should be reported to the National

Fraud Information Center. Chain letters are Spam. Do not send them.

Scambusters has an e-mail newsletter that can help you protect yourself from

Internet scams and misinformation. Register at the website:

http://www.scambusters.com/. If you use Newsgroups, create an e-mail account

at Yahoo! HotMail or another free service for posting messages, do not use

your primary personal e-mail address. Finally, fight all attempts to

legitimize Spam. Remember that Spam is junk. Period.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/1998/06/1503-junkemail.html

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjc/spam.html http://www.fraud.org/

http://www.scambusters.com/

(This is the 112th of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the

Internet. Next, In the Fast Layne is the subject on tap. Stay tuned. Until

next week, happy travels through cyberspace. Previous issues of Internet Info

for Real People (including links to sites mentioned in this article) can be

found: http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail comments and suggestions to:

rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)