So Much for the CAN-SPAM Act

My limited understanding of the CAN-SPAM made it possible to SPAM as long as the advertiser provided legitimate contact and unsubscribe information. Right or wrong, that's the way I understand the law. And don't get me wrong, I don't agree with the law. Give the SPAMMERS the go-ahead to SPAM as long as they follow some rules. In the world of SPAM, the rules are that there are no rules. Or, at least don't get caught. And no, I don't SPAM. I have much better things to do with my time then to sit there all day and annoy people with distorted message.

So in theory, this should mean an end of email address spoofing because the law says the message must include valid contact information. I get the feeling that when they wrote the bill, they didn't get a technical consultant. The spoofing apparently still exists. On occasion, I would get a few bounced emails from free email providers that a bunch of user accounts didn't exist or they were over their limits. Yesterday, I came home to a mailbox full of 200 bounces (and vacation auto-replies) for some bogus SPAM message that I did not send. I've since blackholed (emails go off into oblivion) the email address because I don’t want another filled mailbox incase the spammer-scum tries to do it again.

Let's face it. Are we better off now that the law (at the federal level remember so it trumps state laws if I understand my legislature correctly)? Still getting SPAM. Still getting SPAM to email addresses I don't publish on the Internet. Rarely do they have contact information. I can't complain as compared to some people, I get a small amount of SPAM usually, but still. I wonder if there's any easier way to report it?

Posted: July 12, 2005

Updates

So I received one SPAM the other day with my domain as the From address. Yeah, right. Like I'd send SPAM to myself. HELLO!!! While I'm sure it's not a new game, it seems that the auto-SPAMMERS may be turning away from their old standby addresses to try random generated letters. Lovely. I received two messages, to two different domains, were the gunk was the same mush of characters (a1aaa1azzzz1zaaaaa). I'm 100% certain I didn't sign up for a newsletter with that mush. This will make my filtering oh so much more fun.

July 27, 2005

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