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Re: [Asrg] Lets Fix Mailing Lists

2003-03-10 13:20:48
From: Justin Mason <jm(_at_)jmason(_dot_)org>


quite likely.  Contrary to spammer fighter religious dogma, many
(but certainly not all) spammers care very much about receiving
"bounces" and "removes."  Many spammers honestly think that letting
their targets opt-out is the right thing to do.

In that case, things have changed a lot since April 2002. 

      http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/04/spam.htm:
      In another initiative, Netforce partners tested whether "remove
      me" or "unsubscribe" options in spam were being honored. From
      e-mail forwarded to the FTC's database, the agencies culled
      more than 200 e-mails that purported to allow recipients to
      remove their name from a spam list. The agencies set up dummy
      e-mail accounts to test the pledges, but discovered that the
      vast majority of addresses to which they sent the requests
      were invalid. Most of the "remove me" requests did not get
      through. Based on information gathered by the Netforce, the FTC
      has sent more than 75 letters warning spammers that deceptive
      "removal" claims in unsolicited e-mail are illegal.

Those who bother to read mine the FTC's words will see there is little
or no contradiction.  Furthermore, consider the implications on spammer
behavior of news of those 75 letters warning that bogus removal
addresses are illegal.

If you think that the FTC is smart enough to distinguish dropboxes
that are invalid because they've been terminated by Hotmail etc. for
being advertised in spam from dropboxes that were never valid, then
I have a deal on the profits from a bridge in Nigeria that will interest
you.  Or maybe the FTC is that smart but their PR flaks have odd uses
of English.  Do you think 75 out of 200 is "the vast majority?" 
If not, why didn't the FTC send letters to the vast majority?  Could it
be that most of the other 125 remove addresses were typical free
provider drop-boxes that had been terminated by the free providers?



Vernon Schryver    vjs(_at_)rhyolite(_dot_)com
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