Spam

 

Few things equal the thrill, when you first get an Internet account, of receiving e-mail. But it’s not long before the thrill gives way to annoyance, as you discover that much–sometimes most–of the mail you receive has subject headings like “Get Rich Fast!” or “XXX HOT BABES XXX”.

Yes, just like your regular mailbox, your electronic mailbox attracts junk mail. Internet users call it “spam,” and it’s a growing problem.

Spam, of course, is also the name of a prepared lunchmeat sold by Hormel Foods. The link between Spam the lunchmeat and spam the unsolicited e-mail is a Monty Python sketch, in which a couple enters a restaurant where everything on the menu contains Spam. Other customers include a bunch of singing Vikings who keep breaking into choruses of praise for Spam, eventually drowning out everything else. Similarly, unsolicited e-mail and newsgroup postings threaten to drown out everything else on the Internet.

Supporters of spam claim it’s no more intrusive than regular junk mail and can be deleted at the touch of a key. Anti-spammers, however, point out that since most people pay for Internet access by the hour, and it takes time just to download the unwanted e-mail, recipients actually have to pay for the nuisance of receiving spam. They also pay extra because so much spam is sent every day that it clogs the Internet, slowing transmission times.

The “Spam King” is Sanford Wallace, president of Cyber Promotions, which may be responsible for as much of 80 percent of Internet spam–it spews out between 15 and 20 million unsolicited commercial messages a day for around 10,000 customers. “Spamford” Wallace doesn’t care what Internet users think about him: Cyber Promotions grossed $800,000 last year.

Wallace has claimed that Internet service providers are “common carriers,” legally required to carry his bulk ads. He’s also tried the “free speech” defense. Courts haven’t bought either argument. As a result, Wallace has lost several lawsuits prohibiting him from sending unsolicited e-mail to members of commercial services such as America Online…but nobody has been able to stop him sending it to Internet users.

He may be nearing the end of his rope, however. Recently Cyber Promotions was kicked off the Internet by its service provider, Apex Global Internet Service, Inc. (AGIS), which claimed Cyber Promotions was the target of a massive “ping attack,” which disables computers attached to the Internet by flooding them with repeated information requests. A federal judge has ordered AGIS to reinstate Cyber Promotion’s Internet connection until October 16, because of a clause in its contract requiring 30 days’ notice before termination; but Cyber Promotions so far does not have another service provider lined up. Finding one may prove difficult. AGIS is widely seen as a “rogue” ISP, one that actively allows spamming. The hope is that if AGIS won’t keep Cyber Promotions’ account, no one will.

Of course, that won’t stop spam, because although Wallace may be the Spam King, there are plenty of little spam princes, princesses, dukes and duchesses running around, too, locked in a technological war with anti-spammers.

One way to block spam is to identify the domain from which it comes and refuse to accept any mail that originates there. (The domain name is the part of an Internet address that comes after the @ sign.) To get around this, spammers often use forged domain names–the equivalent of putting a phony return address on an envelope. This can clog the system of the recipient’s Internet service provider, because if for some reason the message can’t be delivered, the system will attempt to return it to its origin–and won’t be able to.

Spammers have also been known to hide a message’s true origin by bouncing it off of an innocent third party, so that “XXX HOT BABES XXX” might appear to come from, for example, the Vatican. This can damage or destroy that third party’s reputation. As well, it could become the target of anti-spam counterattacks that could result in the cancellation of its Internet access.

Since most spam originates in the U.S. the best hope for its reduction may be the U.S. Congress, which some experts expect to legislate against spam, just as it legislated against junk faxes a few years ago. Still, spam is unlikely to completely disappear: the lure of cheap advertising is too much for some people to resist.

But on the plus side, Hormel is doing a brisk business in Spam-related souvenirs!

Permanent link to this article: https://edwardwillett.com/1997/10/spam/

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