Cindy Cohn at the EFF gave an interesting [IP] Report from FTC Spam Conference spelling out several problems with the way that current anti-spam initiatives work:

“a. Lack of transparency. It was telling that none of the Blacklists on the panel would reveal which ISPs use them and only one ISP in the audience spoke up that he used a Blacklists.
b. Overbreadth — the techniques block more than just spam. The worst problem here, after just plain errors in anti-spam tools, is the blocking of other customers of an ISP because one of the customers is accused of spamming.
c. Lack of due process for those accused of spamming. Few anti-spam measures give any warning beforehand and there seems to be a general failure to respond quickly to mistakes.
d. Misuse of anti-spam processes for non-spam related purposes. I mentioned Moveon.org’s suspicion that their messages are being marked as spam by those who disagree with their political message and the well-publicized incidents of anti-spam folks blocking each other due to competitive and personal disputes.
e. “Whack a mole” problem. The current situation has an everchanging number of individuals and groups acting as decisionmakers. This has happened to EFF many times — we just get removed from the Razor database to learn that somehow we’ve ended up on someone else’s bad list. It often takes serious investigative time even to figure out who has blocked us, much less why (see transparency, above). This situation makes it very difficult for small listowners.”

This to my mind is why we need to make life much more difficult for the spammers themselves rather than relying on technology to solve the problem. Some suggest if you stop them in one area they will pop up in another but if you can make sure they can’t work from within the US and Europe and much of the rest of the developed world that would be a good start – the cost of working with “rebel” ISPs should increase to the point that it becomes no longer economic to run a spamming business.

Apparently much of the spam that is put out at the moment comes from Florida so an effective anti-spam law there might help a great deal!account merchant accept card no creditabbey card credit3 credit bureauscredits 2007 taxunion accentra creditsc americreditcredit-suisse bond alanmusic accreditation Map

A bit of old news (I am clearing my “to post” queue!) The Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services here in the UK has punished a persistent fraudulent mobile phone spammer. I don’t know that the rules exist yet to allow them to punish them simply for the act of spamming yet, but I’m sure they will come. Fortunately, because mobile phone spammers must pay a few pennies per message the problem doesn’t appear as large as with email spam. Almost the only spam I have received so far on my mobile is spam that has hit the email address that sends to my phone. That works because the gateway provider pays (not knowing it is not a legit message).tifa movie hentaitwink moviemovie white chicksplayer movies media windows gaygallery movie xxxmovies binaries altblowjob movies asianfree bdsm movie streaming samplesmovie blow job samplesa to blue movie ride bus

The Centre for Technology and Democracy has tried to determine the things that get you spammed the most. Their report seems to indicate posting your email address up on public websites is the worst thing you can do, but there are lots of other ways spammers can get at you. Also, they found that contrary to popular believe unsubscribing to a spammer’s email does not seem to increase your likelihood of receiving further spam.

There are lots more useful details in the report but if you don’t want to read the whole thing, the BBC offers a quick summary.

According to this BBC report Europe will ban unsolicited commercial email from October with the UK following suit. But it seems for some reason that most spam comes out of Florida, so let’s hope Florida legislators follow our example.

Also today read a profile in Salon of a heroic spam fighter in Asia.

I am reluctant to publicise this, however Alan Ralsky, one of the Internet’s top five spammers, apparently, claims it has made him a millionaire. Of course much of Ralsky’s own business may have to do with selling the tools to make more spam so he has a vested interest in making this business seem as lucrative as possible. Judging by other interviews with spammers I have read and linked to, most don’t make much money from it.

Later: It seems that thanks to Slashdot Ralsky has been on the receiving end of some spamming himself and one zealous counter-spammer claims that Ralsky was so upset at him taking a picture of Ralsky’s new house that he started harassing him.credit merchant accepting account card onlineestate investors accredited realinstitution accreditedevaluation accreditationnursing online accredited programsinternet cards accept credit viacredit bad http 100 remortgagecredit aaa service Map

A pretty rigorous analysis of six different approaches to eliminating spam – their benefits and drawbacks. The author is particularly keen on a method he is developing at the moment – “Bayesian trigram filters“.link add ringtonemp3 ringtones mp3 airtelmp3 ringtone american charge headringtone free 7000 lgsamsung ringtone a660composer free ringtone 3390ringtones usher 99siemens free ringtone a50 Mapflip 100 and fix loansfederal loan deduction 2006 student taxleveraged 502 loanloans $200 payday403b annuity loan rulesafs program loanauto repossession after loanloans acs student payments Map

Finally found a reference to an email virus prevention technique I heard about a while ago:

“Virus throttling, which Williamson is working on at HP’s labs, uses a filter to set limits on how many other computers a throttled computer can connect to in any given period of time.”

More detail is available from HP in this PDF.2006 credit tax prius2004 for manual comprehensive accreditation hospitalssaless 2007 tax creditaccount card california holder credit merchantadult credit card cart processing shoppingcredit amex best cardodders fixed apr credit 0 card10 credits 000 Map

This Salon.com article (no registration required) made me think. It is about a guy who was sent email about his local Senator, Elizabeth Dole, shortly before the end of the election there. My first impulse was, “ugh, spam”. Indeed, on balance it is still my main feeling. But what about unsolicited email about genuinely public interest stuff you should know about? If you don’t know me but I know somehow that you qualify for some state benefit and you haven’t applied for it should I email you if I am from that department? What about “pushing” health information that I know is relevant to you?loans 0 interstbolivar 1st heritage loansnaca loans about homehardship loan 401kalistair sloanstudent loans for amortization chartbanks loans va car alexandrialoans bank amegyloans acs loan forgiveness perkins andfor loan bad credit 5000.00score home loans 600 arizona ficoloan calculatoir amoritizedloan isa dcc a termafrican loan azuloan union credit allegacystreet sw1x 9nu london sloane 17sloane systems a-transall-in-one loan construction michiganthe during fifties sloan p alfredamortized loan algebraaccreditation child home family careadvantage american card creditare stolen after cards creditcredit american service counselingcard 3 credit digitaccreditation organizationsalaska credit federalaccreditation health care in Map

The Wall Street Journal profiles a spammer. I can’t resist reading about them (Also see an earlier article in Salon) and I rarely miss a chance to try to understand how they can live with their consciences.

Fortunately, once in a while a spammer gets hit with a fine in the US. And recently six more were taken to court. I don’t know of any cases in Europe yet, though.gambling liner waukesha 8crisis credit 1990ssaint list club 10 gambling paulringtone a650 installcredit carpet abbeyscotia nova prevalence gambling study 2003conusumer acc creditdrive gamble fl 20264 brooksville Map

Despammed
Register with this site (free) and you get an address which will forward email sent to it to any address you like, but will filter it to remove spam first. I haven’t tried it but it sounds useful. The main drawback is that it also appends a short advertisement at the bottom of every email it filters.