Several events this week indicate that the war on spam has begun. First, President Bush has signed the "Can Spam" bill which can impose fines of up to $250 per spam message on those that wish to send unsolicited emails. This bill is interesting and of course has several loop holes but I still think it is a good thing. Even if I get 1 less piece of spam a day I'll be happy!
The state of Virginia has indicted two North Carolina men charging them with violating Virginia's antispam laws. Because these guys falsified their identities in the messages, the charges were elevated to felonies. One of these guys is rated the 8th worst spam offender on the Internet. It will be interesting to see what happens.
On Thursday The state of New York and Microsoft files suit against Scott Richter, one of the world's most prolific spammers. Again, the suit is based on the fact that the spam messages use false names as the sender of the message. I don't know about you, but I would be a little nervous if Microsoft was after me! He better have the proper licenses for his software!!
Let's hope this is the beginning of the end of spam. I don't think in the short term that these events will have a major impact. But I do believe it will help. I will be monitoring my spam during 2004 to see if all this legal activity and the spam filters that have been installed on our mail servers and in Outlook 2003 have an effect. What's your bet?
Here is an interesting website devoted to information on spam: The Spamhaus Project
