SPAM
SITES
The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
A volunteer organization advocating legislative solutions to the problem of spam, or unsolicited commercial email.
Network Abuse Clearinghouse
Resources for complaining about abusive Internet users, especially those who send "spam" - unsolicited bulk email.
Protect Your Webserver From Spam Harvesters
A list of known spam harvesting programs, and instructions on using Apache's mod_rewrite module to divert spambots.
Spam Laws
A collection of laws regarding spam, from the United States and around the world; as well as links and articles regarding spam.
Spambot Beware!
Information about spambots, detecting them, and avoiding them. Talks about ways to encode email addresses so they don't look like email addresses.
The Spamhaus Project
A project which tracks spammers and the networks that allow them to send spam, in an attempt to lessen the use of such unsolicited bulk email.
ARTICLES
Anti-Spam E-mail Suit Tossed Out
A Washington state judge has declared the state's tough anti-spam law to be unconstitutional. (3/14/2000 at Seattle Times)
Are SPAM Blacklists Unreasonable?
Discussion of unresponsive Spam blacklists - lists that track mail servers that have allowed spam traffic in the past, but don't consistently take servers off the list when they stop allowing spam. (2/15/2002 at Slashdot.org)
AT&T Changes Course as Spam Policy Is Revealed
AT&T has admitted to signing a "pink" contract with a spammer, which alloed the spammer to use AT&T for web hosting as long as it sent out its spam from another service provider; AT&T has since cancelled the contract. (11/2/2000 at The New York Times)
Buying Into an E-mail, and Seeing Slim Returns
Jean Dubois (75) and Matt McKinney (32) each followed the instructions in an MLM chain letter, hoping to get rich quick. Net result: a loss of $194 and a gain of $5, respectively. (9/26/2000 at Seattle Times)
Candidate: Spam in Every Pot
Bill Jones, running for governor of Calfornia, sent unsolicited email to potential voters asking for their votes; the problem is, the company he hired forged the email headers, sent the mail through foreign servers, and mistook Canada for California. (3/1/2002 at Wired News)
CyberAtlas: Pornographic Spam on the Increase
Adult spam is up 450 percent since June 2001, to 8 percent of total spam; product marketing spam is still the most prevalent, at 27 percent. (7/3/2002 at NUA Internet Surveys)
Direct Mail Double-Cross?
In December 1998, anti-spam activists met with the Direct Marketing Association, and hammered out some agreements. Since then, agreement has dissolved, and anti-spammers are calling for government regulation. (11/12/1999 at Salon.com)
E-Mail Service Providers Unite in Bid to Stop Spam
AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo! are joining forces to fight against spam. (4/28/2003 at The New York Times)
EBay Warns Glitch May Bring Unwanted E-Mail
EBay has angered many of its users by emailing them marketing messages and promotional materials, though the users told the auction site that they didn't want the email. (1/10/2001 at The Washington Post)
Europe Tries To Take On Spammers
The European Union, which has already banned unsolicited commercial phone calls to its citizens, is considering similar bans on calls to wireless phones and on spam. (1/10/2001 at Las Vegas Sun)
The Fight Against Spam: Defense
Some defensive measures - as an email user and a webmaster - you can take to fight spam. (10/3/2000 at ZDNet Developer)
Fixing a Hole Where Spam Comes In
Due to miscommunication or misconfiguration, ISPs trying to block spam sometimes block legitimate email; recently, many Mindspring customers were kept from emailing Excite@home customers. (7/19/2001 at Wired News)
FTC Puts Bull's-Eye on Spammers
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has settled charges against seven people running an email-based pyramid scheme, and intends to take action against other spammers. (2/12/2002 at Wired News)
Giving Spam the Network Boot
Bulk e-mailer MonsterHut convinced a New York judge to place a restraining order on its ISP, PaeTec Communications, which resells services for Verio, from terminating its Internet access; it says it is abiding by its "pink contract" with PaeTec. (4/19/2001 at News.com)
Hotmail Spam Filters Block Outgoing E-mail
Hotmail users are angry that the Microsoft service has stopped them from sending email to non-spammer addresses at ISPs which also host spammers. (1/18/2001 at News.com)
The Law Is Going After Spam
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, along with state law enforcement agencies and Canadian consumer protection groups, plans to crack down on spam. (4/2/2002 at Wired News)
MAPS Can Be a Roadblock to E-Mail Access, ‘Spam’ or Not
Harris Interactive Inc., an email polling company, is one of the latest companies trying to use the legal system to keep off MAPS' list of spammers. (8/3/2000 at MSNBC)
New York Judge Sides With Alleged Spammer
Judge John Lane upheld an order preventing ISP PaeTec Corp. from denying MonsterHut Inc., an "alleged" spammer, services. (6/4/2001 at NewsBytes)
Not a Moment Too Soon
Review of anti-spam tool ChoiceMail, and an explanation of its methodology: if someone not on your "white list" sends you email, they get an automatic reply asking them to go to a web page and fill out a contact form to be added to your list. (7/30/2002 at SF Gate)
Not All Asian E-Mail Is Spam
Due to the amount of spam coming from Asian countries, some network administrators are blocking all email from the East, contributing to a balkanization of the Net; ironically, much spam coming from Asian computer systems was sent from America. (2/19/2002 at Wired News)
Registrar Sues for Whois Spam
Register.com, a domain name registrar, is suing Verio Inc. for basing a huge email and telephone marketing campaign on the registrar's database of customers. (8/3/2000 at Wired News)
Rep. Goodlatte Intros Anti-Spam Bill
Representative Robert Goodlatte of Virginia has introduced a bill (the "Anti-Spamming Act") in the U.S. House of Representatives that would fine spammers $15,000 or $10 per email, whichever is more, for "spoofing" their email addresses. (3/15/2001 at NewsBytes)
S.D. Men Face Felony Counts, a Rarity, in E-mail 'Spamming'
Two San Diego-area men, Michael Persaud and Frank Kriticos, are being charged with a felony for using high-tech firm Veritool's email server to send out spam. Jason Garon of New York was the first man prosecuted in criminal court for spam, last year. (3/13/2001 at SF Gate)
Save Your Site From Spambots
Using Apache's mod_rewrite module to stop spambots from scraping email addresses from your website. (7/14/2001 at Web Techniques)
Slamming the Door on Spam
The Responsible Electronic Communications Alliance, a group of online marketers (including DoubleClick and 24/7 Media), has proposed a set of privacy standards aimed at cutting down on spam and forestalling government legislation. (9/25/2000 at Wired News)
The ORBS/MAPS Anti-Spam Battle Revisited
A quick analysis of the brewing battle between ORBS and MAPS, two prominent, non-profit anti-spam services. (7/20/2000 at The Register)
Tracking Spam To the Source
A reporter tracks down the people behind the spam she receives. (2/7/2002 at MSNBC)
What's It Worth to You to Get Off the 'Legitimate' Spammers' Mailing Lists?
It's becoming harder and harder to get off spam lists; readers write in and report that many ISPs tend to take the spammers' word over those of spam victims. (11/3/2000 at InfoWorld)
Wireless Spam: How Can It Be Stopped?
U.S. Represenative Rush Holt has introduced legislation banning spam sent to wireless phones; but advertisers and anti-spam activists question the neccesity, given that the wireless industry is "'moving to build spam out' of its infrastructure." (1/10/2001 at ZDNet)
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