Weaver - The Dirty Dozen Spams

Ethics

Industry report targets spam e-mail

Brock Meeks

First published July 14 on MSNBC.

You're on e-mail. You've received spam. It's not a 100% correlation, but it's close. And finally, the authorities in the US are taking it seriously.

There is no easy solution. A combination of self-regulation, technology and legislation is needed.
An ad hoc industry group issued a report Tuesday to the Federal Trade Commission urging stronger enforcement action to combat the growing problem of fraudulent e-mail solicitations, commonly known as spam. The report’s authors acknowledged there is no easy solution, and said that a combination of self-regulation, technology and legislation is needed.
The FTC, for its part, unveiled what it calls the “Dirty Dozen Spam Scams,” which it culled from more than 250,000 junk e-mails consumers sent to a special FTC e-mail address set up for such complaints.
Spam, or unsolicited commercial e-mail as it’s also known, creates “feedback loop” problems for consumers and internet service providers because the majority of such e-mail uses bogus return addresses, said Deirdre Mulligan, staff counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, which coordinated the report. When users try to respond to the junk e-mail, their messages stumble on the fake addresses. These messages, having no where to go, end up in the digital trash bins of Internet Service Providers and can be so numerous that they can slow legitimate message delivery or even crash an ISP’s computer system.
“Technical measures and public policies should be pursued that prevent and/or prohibit the use of fraudulent headers to send unsolicited commercial e-mail messages,” the report says.
Such technical measures include so-called “filtering” programs that allow users to automatically send known junk mail messages directly into a trash file on their computers.
The industry report on spam says the FTC should consider any unsolicited commercial e-mail that contains fake e-mail addresses a deceptive practice and take enforcement action under current fraud laws.
The FTC said Tuesday it hasn’t had time to review the report or its recommendations; however, the agency has already been prosecuting junk e-mail senders, said Jodie Bernstein, director of the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau.
“Law enforcement is our first priority whatever we do,” Bernstein said. “In this instance, we identified five operators who were violating plain old deception laws in deceptive advertising,” she said.

Law enforcement is our first priority whatever we do
TIP-OFFS TO RIP-OFFS
“We have identified what we call our Dirty Dozen list of Spam Scams that are likely to show up on consumer’s computers,” Bernstein said.
FTC unveils “Dirty Dozen Spam Scams”

Source: Federal Trade Commission
The FTC created a searchable database using the Excite search engine so that it could parse keywords on the 250,000 spam e-mails it received from consumers. From this database the agency was able to identify the top “spam scams” consumers are most likely to see in their e-mail.
One of the most popular “spam scams” is an electronic twist on the old chain letter scheme. “You are about to make $50,000 in less than 90 days!” are typical claims made in these electronic letters, the FTC says. The Email instructs the reader to send some amount of money to people whose names and addresses are included in the message. After sending the money, the reader is instructed to send the message to as many people as possible. The electronic chain letters are every bit as illegal as the paper versions, the FTC says. Ironically, the agency says, the paper-based chain letter scams had all but vanished until the Internet made them popular once more.
The FTC is still receiving junk e-mail complaints at a rate of up to 1,500 a day, Bernstein said. And they want more. “Think about it. We may be the only people in town to welcome it,” Bernstein said. Consumers can forward their spam e-mail to a special FTC mailbox, uce@ftc.gov.

NOT FULL CONSENSUS
Although the authors of the Internet industry report agreed that spam is a growing and urgent problem, there is by no means a consensus on a solution.
“There was a lot of healthy tussling that went on in trying to reach a consensus,” said Jeff Richards, executive director of the Internet Alliance.
While praising the report’s analysis of the junk e-mail problem and the problems associated with it, the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, which also participated in the report, said it wants regulators to know that there are some disagreements.
For example, the coalition supports a bill in Congress authored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., that would ban commercial junk e-mail along the lines of the bill that banned junk faxes several years ago.

The sad truth about dealing with spam is that there isn’t a nice, neat, one-size-fits-all solution.
“We are little bit dismayed that the report very strongly implies that the Smith bill is unconstitutional and that’s just not founded in the law and fact,” said Ray Everett-Church, co-founder of coalition.
The report instead favors a kind of “truth in advertising” law for e-mail. The Senate has passed such a law as part of the Consumer Antislamming Act. A provision in this bill levies fines on junk e-mailers of up to $15,000 if they fake their return addresses.
The sad truth about dealing with spam is that there isn’t a nice, neat, one-size-fits-all solution. “I really wish we could be standing up here today for this report saying there was a silver bullet solution; unfortunately, there isn’t,” said Jill Lesser, a lawyer with America Online.
“Unfortunately, the case is what we’re looking at are piecemeal solutions, recommendations where policy makers and legislators and those of us in the industry can start to look at this problem and start to work together,” Lesser said.

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This page updated August 29, 1998


	There is no easy solution. A combination of self-regulation, technology and legislation is needed.	An ad hoc industry group issued a report Tuesday to the Federal Trade Commission urging stronger enforcement action to combat the growing problem of fraudulent e-mail solicitations, commonly known as spam. The report’s authors acknowledged there is no easy solution, and said that a combination of self-regulation, technology and legislation is needed. The FTC, for its part, unveiled what it calls the “Dirty Dozen Spam Scams,” which it culled from more than 250,000 junk e-mails consumers sent to a special FTC e-mail address set up for such complaints. Spam, or unsolicited commercial e-mail as it’s also known, creates “feedback loop” problems for consumers and internet service providers because the majority of such e-mail uses bogus return addresses, said Deirdre Mulligan, staff counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, which coordinated the report. When users try to respond to the junk e-mail, their messages stumble on the fake addresses. These messages, having no where to go, end up in the digital trash bins of Internet Service Providers and can be so numerous that they can slow legitimate message delivery or even crash an ISP’s computer system. “Technical measures and public policies should be pursued that prevent and/or prohibit the use of fraudulent headers to send unsolicited commercial e-mail messages,” the report says. Such technical measures include so-called “filtering” programs that allow users to automatically send known junk mail messages directly into a trash file on their computers. The industry report on spam says the FTC should consider any unsolicited commercial e-mail that contains fake e-mail addresses a deceptive practice and take enforcement action under current fraud laws. The FTC said Tuesday it hasn’t had time to review the report or its recommendations; however, the agency has already been prosecuting junk e-mail senders, said Jodie Bernstein, director of the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau. “Law enforcement is our first priority whatever we do,” Bernstein said. “In this instance, we identified five operators who were violating plain old deception laws in deceptive advertising,” she said.
	Law enforcement is our first priority whatever we do	TIP-OFFS TO RIP-OFFS “We have identified what we call our Dirty Dozen list of Spam Scams that are likely to show up on consumer’s computers,” Bernstein said. FTC unveils “Dirty Dozen Spam Scams” Source: Federal Trade Commission The FTC created a searchable database using the Excite search engine so that it could parse keywords on the 250,000 spam e-mails it received from consumers. From this database the agency was able to identify the top “spam scams” consumers are most likely to see in their e-mail. One of the most popular “spam scams” is an electronic twist on the old chain letter scheme. “You are about to make $50,000 in less than 90 days!” are typical claims made in these electronic letters, the FTC says. The Email instructs the reader to send some amount of money to people whose names and addresses are included in the message. After sending the money, the reader is instructed to send the message to as many people as possible. The electronic chain letters are every bit as illegal as the paper versions, the FTC says. Ironically, the agency says, the paper-based chain letter scams had all but vanished until the Internet made them popular once more. The FTC is still receiving junk e-mail complaints at a rate of up to 1,500 a day, Bernstein said. And they want more. “Think about it. We may be the only people in town to welcome it,” Bernstein said. Consumers can forward their spam e-mail to a special FTC mailbox, uce@ftc.gov. NOT FULL CONSENSUS Although the authors of the Internet industry report agreed that spam is a growing and urgent problem, there is by no means a consensus on a solution. “There was a lot of healthy tussling that went on in trying to reach a consensus,” said Jeff Richards, executive director of the Internet Alliance. While praising the report’s analysis of the junk e-mail problem and the problems associated with it, the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, which also participated in the report, said it wants regulators to know that there are some disagreements. For example, the coalition supports a bill in Congress authored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., that would ban commercial junk e-mail along the lines of the bill that banned junk faxes several years ago.
	The sad truth about dealing with spam is that there isn’t a nice, neat, one-size-fits-all solution.	“We are little bit dismayed that the report very strongly implies that the Smith bill is unconstitutional and that’s just not founded in the law and fact,” said Ray Everett-Church, co-founder of coalition. The report instead favors a kind of “truth in advertising” law for e-mail. The Senate has passed such a law as part of the Consumer Antislamming Act. A provision in this bill levies fines on junk e-mailers of up to $15,000 if they fake their return addresses. The sad truth about dealing with spam is that there isn’t a nice, neat, one-size-fits-all solution. “I really wish we could be standing up here today for this report saying there was a silver bullet solution; unfortunately, there isn’t,” said Jill Lesser, a lawyer with America Online. “Unfortunately, the case is what we’re looking at are piecemeal solutions, recommendations where policy makers and legislators and those of us in the industry can start to look at this problem and start to work together,” Lesser said.