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Re: Why spam is a problem.

2002-08-13 21:23:08
What you all think about the famous nigerian scam
which spams every
list?(http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/)

Excerpts from a recent nwfusion column:
http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2002/0812gibbs.html

*As an example, consider the Nigerian Scam, otherwise 
known as 419 fraud
http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/). 
I first learned of this about five years ago when a
friend got a letter by snail mail offering a "business
proposition." Similar offers started appearing through
e-mail a couple of years later and now I receive one
or two each day!

The messages are usually sent from or can be traced
back to Nigeria, although some come from other nations
such as Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the
Ivory Coast.

The 419 scam is serious business! Estimates put the
annual take in the hundreds of millions of dollars.*

I think some kind of legislations will be the best
solution for such kind of spams .

--- Bill Sommerfeld
<sommerfeld(_at_)orchard(_dot_)arlington(_dot_)ma(_dot_)us> wrote:
spam is a non-technical problem.  the ietf is not
well suited to
solving such things.  

Has anyone been following the legislative
discussions related to spam
legislation?  what's the blocking factor preventing
it at (say) the US
federal level?

One possibly hairbrained half-technical idea which I
haven't seen
suggested elsewhere..

Defines a SMTP connect banner token which is the
moral equivalent of a
"no soliciting" sign.  It indicates "unsolicited
commercial email not
welcome at this server".

Now, lobby for the creation of laws which subjects
someone who sends
spam despite the "no soliciting" sign to a
significant fine
($1000.00/message?), payable to the recipient.

I suspect that anti-spam organizations would quickly
evolve into
collection agents (for a cut of the fine, of
course).

                                      - Bill




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