"Spam rage"? 1

[CajunCenturion]

lionhill - I think one of the main differences between snail mail and email is that you are paying for email. You are paying for the bandwidth, and you are paying for the disk storage, and for someone to take some of that bandwidth, and to use some of your storage without permission is taking away from without consent that which you have paid for.

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[carrr]

Ah...I forgot that the government provided postal service to us gratis.

 

[CajunCenturion]

No, it's not provided gratis, but keep in mind, its the person sending the mail that is paying for it.

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[rosieb]

Also, with snail mail, you can take the content of one mailing (minus, of course, any identifying material) put it into the prepaid envelope of another and post it. Thus raising revenue for the postal authorities, and keeping postage rates down.

 

[CajunCenturion]

Good idea rosieb

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[carrr]

Cajun,

True in most cases (exceptions for non-profit-type exemptions, etc.)....though I wouldn't try and make much of it, just had to be said. If it were as feasible, I'm sure I'd see a lot more offers for products to enlarge my mailslot by several inches than I currently do (which is currently none...)

Of course, the infuriating thing about spam is its ubiquity and the relentless, totally non-selective way in which it's thrown out there. However, I do have a hard time listening to a lot of the pervasive whining from hotmail users, yahoo users, etc. who incessantly p and m about getting spam and why can't so and so do something about it. Many/most of these complaints come from account "owners" who don't pay a cent for the service yet expect first rate "privacy."

On the other hand, I pay a modest sum yearly for generous service from a provider who boasts robust spam filtering, and they deliver. I occasionally get a hit in my Junk folder and sometimes check it out for grins, but literally fewer than 7 or 8 a month.

 

[carrr]

rosieb,

I became a huge fan of that tactic when my wife and I joyously discovered the wonders of stuffing return envelopes from miscellaneous credit card companies with WalMart advertisements, mailings from their competing credit companies, etc. No joke...mailings to us have dropped off.

 

[jrbarnett]

My sister will send leaflets etc back to where it came from if there was a prepaid envelope. The only thing she won't send back is part completed credit card applications.

John

 

[Onyxpurr]

Hey there's an idea. I'll create my own advertisement and send it back to them in their envelopes. You think that'll go over well? Maybe I should start spamming spammers?

 

[carrr]

While I'm not for inviting too much formal regulation (I fear what door smight be opened), I do wish that some simple "truth in advertising" principle were put in place so that spammers' addresses were valid.

I could kill so much time...

 

[cryptogro4]

"I think one of the main differences between snail mail and email is that you are paying for email."

Last I knew I was paying for snail mail in the USA. My postal carrier is not delivering the mail for free - and the junk mail (spam in electronic form) is benefiting the post office by delivering it, thus keeping postal employees employed.

 

[chiph]

Geeze, just got five more "Show women t.r.e.m.e.n.d.o.u.s potential" emails.

Luckily, Virginia has asked the Raleigh police department to arrest a notorious spammer, and plan to request extradition for prosecution under Virginia's no-spam law.

http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2003/12/08/daily54.html

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3980042

One of his aliases is "Gaven Stubberfield", who is responsible for 1/8th of the spam originating in the US.

So I suspect my inbox will be 12.5% cleaner, or at least until he can make bail. ;-)

Chip H.


If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ222-2244 first

 

[GwydionM]

It may well be true that laws against spam will not stop spam. But the same would be true of laws against murder, rape, burglary, mugging etc.

So let's see how the new laws work, and call for them to be toughened up if necessary. And commercial pressures can be put on countries that harbour spammers, as has happened with software piracy.

 

[jrbarnett]

How about banning spammers from using computer with an internet connection, for any purpose whatsoever?

John

 

[Tarwn]

A firend of mine (after numerous cals) once solved his snail mail issue with a credit card company by judicious use of a roll of masking tape, a cinder block, and the included "postage paid" card. They stopped mailing him.



_{01000111 01101111 01110100 00100000 01000011 01101111 01100110 01100110 01100101 01100101 00111111}
The never-completed website:

http://www.tiernok.com/

 

[CajunCenturion]

As a couple of people have jumped on my statement "I think one of the main differences between snail mail and email is that you are paying for email.". Obviously this was not well worded, so please allow me to clarify. It certainly was not intended to imply that the postal service is free, it is not, but it's payed for by the sender, through postage stamps and fees. The "You" in my statement refers to us as the receipients of email.

The point being that junk postal mail is paid for by the sender, but spam email is paid for by the recipient, and the people who are leasing the transport mechanism. I'm sorry that my statement was so misleading.

Many of the examples, and some quite humorous, provided above for dealing with junk mail have solved the problem all by doing essentially the same thing. They have put the forced the spammer to pay far more than any expected reasonable return, thus making it a non-profitable activity.

Laws may slow down spam, but they are not going to stop it. Spam is a money making venture (and from what I understand quite lucrative), and the only way to stop it is to eliminate it's profit making potential. That will mean that the laws must be enforced with sufficient civil penalties to make it more costly than it's worth.

Or as jrbarnett has suggested, deny them access to the internet, although I'm not quite sure, just yet, as how to enforce that.

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[jrbarnett]

Not sure about the US, but in the UK court orders can be given that prohibit people from visiting certain geographical areas because of causing nuisance in the area, with the threat of jail for those found to break the order.

Although the internet is not a physical entity in the same sense as a road or town, I think this type of punishment could be used.
As with driving bans, it would be up to the convict to not use it, because they never know who may report them.

John

 

[chiph]

How about banning spammers from using computer with an internet connection, for any purpose whatsoever?

Sounds like a good idea, but I doubt it's effectiveness. It's sort of like taking a habitual drunk driver's license away -- they will always find a way to get behind the wheel again, license or no license.

Chip H.


If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ222-2244 first

 

[ecobb]

Well, every Spam email I've ever gotten has either a link to a web site or a phone number to call. So why not just have a law allowing us to press charges against THAT company? Most likely they didn't actually send the Spam email, but they did PAY someone to do it. Cut off the Spammer's cash flow and see what happens. If everyone were to press charges against every company that sent an advertisement with their Visa statement, before long they would stop paying Visa to send out the advertisements. Stop the problem at it's source, the companies that pay Spammers to send this stuff out. (Yeah, I know...I'm dreaming)

Hope This Helps!

Ecobb

"Alright Brain, you don't like me, and I don't like you. But lets just do this, and I can get back to killing you with beer." - Homer Simpson

 

[manarth]

nice suggestion, but what if Microsoft were to send out spam saying "buy the latest Apple Mac!"

Apple's name are on it - they MUST have sent the Span, ergo fine them, OK?



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