Offbeat News: Spam, SPAM and Saddam

Grok Headline matches for Offbeat News: Spam, SPAM and Saddam

Spam, spam, spam, spam ... Canada
targets unwanted email (AFP)

Spam, spam, spam, spam ... Canada
targets unwanted email (AFP) 05/12/2004 04:17 AM
AFP - Canada unveiled a new action plan to combat unsolicited commercial e-mail, nicknamed spam, which jams inboxes and clogs Internet traffic worldwide.

Finance Spam Passing Drug Spam While
Porn Spam Is Washed Up

Finance Spam Passing Drug Spam While
Porn Spam Is Washed Up 05/24/2004 05:37 PM
The latest study on spam trends appears to show that financial spam is outpacing pharmaceutical spam - though, honestly, so much of both is coming out that it's really hard to imagine that this matters at all. Meanwhile, it seems that porn spam is increasingly less interesting to spammers as the numbers have been on a noticeable decline for quite some time. No matter what, though, it appears that CAN-SPAM has done absolutely nothing to slow down the amount of spam sent.

From spam drops to spam spray to spam
stream

From spam drops to spam spray to spam
stream 06/05/2004 07:31 PM
I am now getting 2,000+ spams a day. There are 1,440 minutes in a day The rate of incoming spams is therefore getting close to the interval it takes me to check my email and dispose of a single spam: By the time I'm done checking, more spam has arrived. That is the point at which the spam droplets form a continuous stream. And that is the point at which no interval of my life will ever be spam-free again....

Tomorrow's Menu: Spam, Spam, Spam

Tomorrow's Menu: Spam, Spam, Spam 12/11/2003 06:15 AM
Congress overwhelmingly passes a bill to fight the online scourge, but critics say the unwanted e-mail will increase because the law will actually legitimize spam. By Amit Asaravala.

Anti-Spam Technical Alliance Publishes
Industry Recommendations to Help Stop
Spam

Anti-Spam Technical Alliance Publishes
Industry Recommendations to Help Stop
Spam 06/22/2004 09:17 AM
The Anti-Spam Technical Alliance (ASTA), whose participants include Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft Corp., EarthLink and America Online Inc., today unveiled the result of more than a year of close collaboration by presenting a host of detailed best practices and technical recommendations for the entire industry in an effort to fight the scourge of spam.

Review: Advanced Spam Manager Attacks
Viruses, Spam For Exchange, Notes

Review: Advanced Spam Manager Attacks
Viruses, Spam For Exchange, Notes 03/27/2005 12:35 PM
Information Week Mar 27 2005 3:25PM GMT

Symantec Brightmail Anti-Spam v6.0
delivers next-generation spam-fighting
power, control to enterprises

Symantec Brightmail Anti-Spam v6.0
delivers next-generation spam-fighting
power, control to enterprises 07/01/2004 10:20 PM
Sunday Times South Africa Jul 2 2004 2:42AM GMT

New zombie spam technique may send spam
levels through the roof

New zombie spam technique may send spam
levels through the roof 02/05/2005 09:36 PM
Warnings abound about a change in tactics on the part of zombie PC network operators. As a result, spam levels could rise to nearly 95% of all e-mails sent.

AOL Falls In Love With The Wrong Spam
Stats -- Says Spam Decreased

AOL Falls In Love With The Wrong Spam
Stats -- Says Spam Decreased 12/27/2004 01:32 PM
AOL is claiming that their new spam filter has greatly reduced spam, creating nice looking headlines about less spam. Of course, you could question their findings. The details show that what was reduced was spam complaints. This might be a proxy for the amount of spam that got through to inboxes, or it might just show that AOL subscribers have wised up and realized that reporting spam to AOL doesn't seem to do a bit of good -- and they've just given up on it.

Spam king Secure your home PC or you
could be helping send spam

Spam king Secure your home PC or you
could be helping send spam 08/03/2004 07:21 AM
BBC Aug 3 2004 11:45AM GMT

Anti-spam activists targets of
spam-spawning virus

Anti-spam activists targets of
spam-spawning virus 12/06/2003 09:45 AM
Canadian Press Dec 6 2003 9:11AM ET

Spammer Complies With CAN-SPAM, Claims
ISPs Should Not Filter His Spam

Spammer Complies With CAN-SPAM, Claims
ISPs Should Not Filter His Spam 05/20/2004 07:05 PM
Ronnie Scelson is one of the shortlist of spammers who just seems to love publicity. While many spammers like to hide away, Scelson's always willing to talk. He testified before the Senate Commerce Committee today, claiming that he is now compl ying with CAN-SPAM, but threatened to ignore the law if not enough of his spam messages were getting through filters. He actually has the audacity to complain that now that CAN-SPAM is in effect, ISPs should be required to let his mail through. Maybe the filters are a little to thick around his head and the message isn't getting through to him: the reason his spam is filtered is because people don't want it.

California Spam Law: Won't Stop Spam,
Will Make It Harder To Do Business

California Spam Law: Won't Stop Spam,
Will Make It Harder To Do Business 11/03/2003 11:40 PM
I get inundated with more and more spam every day, and it's frustrating as anything. I want it to stop. However, if politicians insist on passing bad legislation in their attempts to stop spam, that's not going to do any good. I've already complained about the new California legislation and it looks like I'm not alone. A guy who runs a consulting firm and writes for Business Week points out why California's anti-spam law won't do a thing about spam, but will make life more difficult for legitimate small businesses. He describes a situation where he did a very targeted mailing for a company. It's probably up to your definition of spam as to whether or not you consider his mailing spam. I tend to draw the line on whether or not the mailing was "bulk" - which it sounds like his was. I believe that if the email is truly targeted and personalized about a potential business relationship, then it's hard to call it spam. The California law disagrees. In fact, the sponsor of the bill claims that any email contact between two companies is not legitimate if it hasn't been initiated under some other form. That's simply ridiculous. As I've said before, plenty of "commercial" websites contact Techdirt every day about the possibility of partnerships or links. Under California's anti-spam law, I could charge them with spam. I recently heard from a major technology magazine, asking if I would add them to my Quicklinks box. Should I sue them for spam? According to the law, I could.

CAN SPAM Designed To Make Congressmen
Look Good - Not Stop Spam

CAN SPAM Designed To Make Congressmen
Look Good - Not Stop Spam 01/07/2004 06:36 PM
We all know now that the CAN SPAM law is a disaster and is unlikely to do anything useful in the battle against spam. It's also becoming clear that the entire point of the bill was never to stop spam, but to make a few folks in Congress look good (which seems to be the entire point of most politics these days). First, Business Week spends some time comparing the mostly effective federal "Do Not Call" list with CAN SPAM. The DNC list was planned out carefully by the FTC and the FCC, and, while it upset many telemarketers, it was designed in a way to be effective. There was also enough time, and enough publicity given to the list that people knew about it and had the opportunity to sign up for it - while marketers had the ability to prepare on their end as well. With CAN SPAM, however, it was rushed through Congress with little thought towards whether or not it would actually do anything and without any money to actually deal with any of these cases. Meanwhile, the NY Times reports that the sponsors of the bill asked the FTC to sue a spammer the very first week the bill was in effect in order to make a big "splash" so they could pat themselves on the back - even as the spam levels continued to increase. FTC Chair Timothy Muris (who has spoken out against this spam law) apparently laughed them off and pointed out it was impossible to do such a thing. First of all, in order to violate the law, the spammers have to ignore an opt-out request. Then, the FTC would have to track down who the actual spammer was - with no additional funds, because the law didn't provide for them.

Actif Communications Announces GEF, the
Global eMail Format - Best Practice
eMails that Comply with US Can Spam,
Australian Spam Act and EU Directives

Actif Communications Announces GEF, the
Global eMail Format - Best Practice
eMails that Comply with US Can Spam,
Australian Spam Act and EU Directives 02/01/2005 09:10 PM
The risk in sending commercial emails overseas is not so much from the legislators; it is from the ISP’s who have the power to Black List your company. A new email format has been suggested that not only complies to Best Practices it also meets or exceeds the requirements of Can Spam, The Australian Spam Act and the EU Directives. [PRWEB Feb 1, 2005]

Microsoft calls for outbound spam
filtering against spam

Microsoft calls for outbound spam
filtering against spam 06/04/2004 10:42 AM
Computer Weekly Jun 4 2004 2:14PM GMT

Anti-Spam Legislation Makes Spam More
Malicious

Anti-Spam Legislation Makes Spam More
Malicious 04/29/2004 01:28 PM
Aren't unintended consequences wonderful? Now that anti-spam legislation is becoming popular, one result is that spammers aren't wasting time with just spamming mortgage offers and ways to buy Viagra. Instead, now that they realize they're definitely on illegal ground, they're moving more towards malicious attack spam, including phishing attacks and trojan horse attacks. In other words, if they're going to break the law with spam, they figure they might as well go all out.

Mobile SMS spam surpasses email spam in
Korea

Mobile SMS spam surpasses email spam in
Korea 01/03/2005 10:21 AM

CORRECTED: AOL Spam Down 75 Pct; Net
Spam Trends Reverse (Reuters)

CORRECTED: AOL Spam Down 75 Pct; Net
Spam Trends Reverse (Reuters) 12/27/2004 11:21 AM
Reuters - You've got less spam, according to America Online, the world's largest online service.

California Spam Law: Won't Stop Spam,
Will Increase Lawsuits

California Spam Law: Won't Stop Spam,
Will Increase Lawsuits 11/14/2003 07:29 PM
I hate spam and would like nothing better than to see an effective anti-spam law put on the books. However, as I've said before, the California anti-spam law is not the right law. Plenty of others seem to agree, and everyone believes that the law won't stand up if tested in court. The problem is what do people do until it's been tested? The other question is who is going to take on this law. Luckily, it won't be the Direct Marketing Association, who I don't trust in the slightest. They say they've burned up all their resources fighting the "Do Not Call" list. At a conference among email marketers, some were suggesting that they should file their own lawsuits under the bill in order to purposely clog the court system with such lawsuits. This seems like typical bad marketing thinking that overburdening a system somehow gets extra attention. The right response is that someone who gets sued for doing something that clearly is not spam is going to have to go to court and get the law overturned. Maybe (and this would be the best) it happens to someone who is not associated with an "email marketing" company, but just someone who sends a perfectly reasonable email and gets hit with a lawsuit.

Spam Rules Require Effective Spam Police

Spam Rules Require Effective Spam Police 06/02/2004 05:09 PM
Source: ClickZ - Want a real solution to spam? The search engines should agree to publish lists of companies they've banned. That would help consumers seeking SEM firms to understand which to avoid. If they do use a banned firm,...

Report from the spam/anti-spam summit

Report from the spam/anti-spam summit 04/09/2004 04:05 PM
Danny O'Brien has written up one of the first summits between spammers and spam-fighters for the Guardian. It's a great piece.

Surprisingly, no such shootings occur. It's oddly intimate, watching the spammers and the anti-spammers mill around each other like this. It feels like a temporary ceasefire in a vicious war that to most of us seems to be a stalemate...

Over the past year, though, a series of meetings arranged by a trusted figure in the American anti-spam community, Anne Mitchell, have been slowly bringing the two sides together. These mini-conferences, held under the banner of the Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy, have mostly been between the highest-ranking ISPs - MSN, AOL - and commercial email marketers of the most squeaky clean kind. Initially in secret, these days the meetings are more public.

Link (via Oblomovka)

IBM Believes In Spam For A Spam
Vigilante Revenge

IBM Believes In Spam For A Spam
Vigilante Revenge 03/22/2005 05:03 PM
It seems that larger companies are really getting pissed off at spammers these days. While going out and attacking spammers used to be more limited to net.vigilantes, some well known companies have been taking stronger approaches to fighting spam lately. A few months back there was Lycos ' plan to let anyone download a screensaver that would launch distributed denial of service attacks on spammers. While Lycos claimed it wouldn't take anyone offline, it wasn't long before that was proven false. Next up on the list is IBM, whose latest anti-spam offering will send data right back at spamming machines in an effort to slow them down. It's not quite a distributed denial of service attack -- it's more like a centralized one. It's sort of one step up beyond greyl isting which just slows down the spam. Instead, this tries to slow down the computer sending the spam. Again, this leaves IBM open to charges of hitting back too hard -- especially if innocent sites get taken offline in the process. Still, when large companies like IBM start offering products like this, you know that people are getting fed up.

New Spam-Scanning Technology Finds Spam

New Spam-Scanning Technology Finds Spam 04/02/2005 02:50 AM
Slashdot Apr 2 2005 5:43AM GMT

Spam fighters infiltrate spam clubs

Spam fighters infiltrate spam clubs 05/14/2004 10:32 AM
Tales from the underground

spam egg spam spam bacon and spam

spam egg spam spam bacon and spam 06/05/2005 10:54 PM
I hate unsolicited e-mail, of any kind. Period. I don't care about whatever alleged virus warning you heard about from...

News Spam

News Spam 08/22/2004 01:43 PM

Here's something that may be a new trend in spam: including semi-newsworthy information in an attempt to add some value to the spam.

I got an email the other day entitled "Medal Count." It appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be an accurate medal count for each country from the Summer Olympic Games. I couldn't figure out why someone would send this to me, then, as I read through the list of countries, a penis enlargement ad image scrolled into view at the bottom.

This one made it through my bayesian filter, and actually got me to read it for a while. Just another salvo in the war, and another attempt to d ilute the spam payload. Spam filters will eventuially adapt, and spammers will try something new.

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Other News: Recruitment Spam

Other News: Recruitment Spam 03/23/2005 01:03 PM
Our government appears to be violating its own anti-spam laws, as it seeks to entice more young people to join the military.

Other News: CAN-SPAM Comments

Other News: CAN-SPAM Comments 08/17/2004 11:27 AM
You can submit feedback to the FTC about the CAN-SPAM act through September 13.

Other News: VoIP Spam

Other News: VoIP Spam 08/10/2004 10:15 AM
If you thought telemarketing was bad now, wait until it invades Voice-over-IP telephony.

Other News: Spam from China

Other News: Spam from China 05/28/2004 11:11 AM
Ever wondered why your email box is filling up with spam from China?

Other News: Spam Series

Other News: Spam Series 05/20/2004 10:03 AM
O'Reilly talks about Mail.app's anti-spam mechanism in the second of a 3-part series.

Other News: Spam Arrests

Other News: Spam Arrests 04/30/2004 09:15 AM
Some big-time spammers are looking at federal felony charges under the CAN-SPAM act.

Best news in the war on spam: phishing

Best news in the war on spam: phishing 05/24/2004 03:10 AM
Boston Globe May 24 2004 6:25AM GMT

Other News: Spam Beacons

Other News: Spam Beacons 04/15/2004 09:00 AM
Meanwhile, half of spam uses surreptitious HTML "beacons" to track its targets.

Other News: International Spam Problem

Other News: International Spam Problem 05/12/2004 09:54 AM
The mammoth, international nature of spam abuse may require an international "treaty" for relief.

Other News: Cell Phone Spam

Other News: Cell Phone Spam 02/17/2004 11:51 AM
Cell phone spam (via text messaging) is apparently a big problem out side the U.S.

Other News: Anti-Spam Technologies

Other News: Anti-Spam Technologies 08/23/2004 10:56 AM
There are several new anti-spam approaches in development.

Other News: Florida Spam Charges

Other News: Florida Spam Charges 04/05/2005 12:04 PM
Florida charges Scott J. Filary and Donald E. Townsend with gross abuse via spam.
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Offbeat News: Spam, SPAM and Saddam

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