In prior postings I have asserted that when it comes to the spam problem, technology will work better than legislation. I have not said that governments have no role. The FTC Spam Forum was a very good thing. It has raised a lot of attention and focus on the issue. Orson Swindle, one of the commissioners, was aggressive in challenging the corporate world to “solve the problem”. Such encouragement is good. I can’t prove that it was because of the FTC stick but it is very encouraging to have read recently that AOL, MSN, and Yahoo! have started a dialogue on how to deal with the problem. Governments have a role in prosecution of existing laws and making the public aware of the results (with the help of the media). Governments also operate the court system and speedy trials of fraudulent activities by spammers is extremely helpful. It was quite encouraging today to see that a federal judge awarded Earthlink damages of $16.4 million and a permanent injunction against a Buffalo, NY spammer. According to Patricia M. LaHay of the Associated Press, the spammer was the leader of a ring that used EarthLink services to send some 825 million pieces of unsolicited “spam” e-mail in the past year. He is now banned from sending spam ever again — and from helping others send it.
As word of more and more cases like this one get around, perhaps more spammers will think twice. Finding and prosecuting the off-shore spammes will be much more difficult and this is why we need technology solutions to block them. Hopefully, other governments around the world will begin prosecutions as part of an international effort. Spam is costly in every country and even more so in countries where bandwidth is less plentiful and more expensive. There are a growing number of successful prosecutions in America — all without new legislation.
What was illegal — and enabled this prosecution — was not spam per se but rather the tactics. According to Ms. LaHay, the Buffalo spammer kept the spam flowing through Internet accounts opened with stolen identities and credit card numbers. They used fake email addresses — which they changed every couple of days — to keep investigators off their trail. According to Earthlink, their spam included offers for herbal Viagra, weight-loss products and get-rich schemes, one of which was “hire me to spam for you'”. In another suit, Earthlink was awarded $25 million in damages from another big junk e-mailer in Tennessee.
America Online has also been suing spammers, winning a $6.9 million judgment in Federal court against an Illinois company for sending pornographic spam. In fact, Ms. LaHay reported that AOL has won 25 spam-related lawsuits against more than 100 companies and individuals. Verizon Communications settled a spam lawsuit against a Michigan-based company that prevented them from e-mailing Verizon Internet customers. The suit also gave Verizon unspecified damages.
Many more suits are pending. Whether the suits make a big dent or not, it is a certainty that spam will not go away. Technology remains the key element of the solution.
