Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Spam me and pay $500!

ADV: Lose weight now!

California already requires the letters ADV to be put on the front of unsolicited e-mail, although the law is mostly ignored.

I've read that by July spam is expected to pass a milestone: 50% of all e-mail.

By coincidence, Mr. Anderson, I was coding my own experimental spam filter when you made your post.
 
Re: ADV: Lose weight now!

Originally posted by Doctor Q
By coincidence, Mr. Anderson, I was coding my own experimental spam filter when you made your post.
Click to expand...

Ha, cool.

There has been a lot of work in the field of spam filtering - and as everyone who's ever used one knows there is a long way to go until it works 100% correctly.

A colleague of mine mentioned that checking for the string "FF0000" is about as good as it gets for a single filter search key. It the color red in hex and what's used in html emails.

Of course it makes all sorts of assumptions, like no one is going to send you an html email that isn't spam...;)

D
 
In addition to the obvious method - looking for words or patterns in the Subject, From, or body text - there are a few tricks for recognizing spam that can be automated:

* Doing reverse name lookups to recognize forged headers.

* Checking for mail that passed through mail servers that are open relays. The Open Relay Database can be used for this.

* Checking for blacklisted sites with a service like the one from Spamcop.
 
I don't think the law would change much since it's already pretty hard to find the spammers in the first place. They should be giving the fine to the company who's wares are being sold and force the company to regulate their own 'advertisements'.
 
Originally posted by crazytom
I don't think the law would change much since it's already pretty hard to find the spammers in the first place. They should be giving the fine to the company who's wares are being sold and force the company to regulate their own 'advertisements'.
Click to expand...

yeah, this law would be totally unenforceable. you cannot track most spam messages back to the company that sent them, and you can't legally hold responsible the site advertised-- what if a competitor sent out spam for their site, to drive the company bankrupt? It's circumstancial.

only way spam will stop-- redesign the way email works. if security is implemented, it would be easy to stop spam with laws. but the current email system is far too trusting...

god i hate spam...
:)
pnw
 
Originally posted by paulwhannel
yeah, this law would be totally unenforceable. you cannot track most spam messages back to the company that sent them, and you can't legally hold responsible the site advertised-- what if a competitor sent out spam for their site, to drive the company bankrupt? It's circumstancial.

only way spam will stop-- redesign the way email works. if security is implemented, it would be easy to stop spam with laws. but the current email system is far too trusting...

god i hate spam...
:)
pnw
Click to expand...

eh... what's the big deal with spam anyway? mac OS X mail automatically deletes any spam I get, so I never even see it. :)
 
If the Hormel company sends you unsolicited email offering 1 free sample of their favorite canned meat delivered to your home, provided you forward the message to two of your friends, how much spam is that?
 
Isn't this going to be too easy to avoid? I thought the people that did this kinda stuff disappeared right after the emails were sent.

P-Worm
 
2 problems (in addition to not being able to enforce it very well) i see:

1. the companies will keep trying to act like you signed up for it... and most likely, companies will go even further to make you unknowingly agree to receiving email from other companies or themselves...

2. can i sue people for sending me dumb forwards that say i have to send it to 10 people by noon or else i'll never fall in love??? :( ;)
 
Originally posted by jelloshotsrule
2. can i sue people for sending me dumb forwards that say i have to send it to 10 people by noon or else i'll never fall in love??? :( ;)
Click to expand...

It will be odd to be able to sue a person for spamming - I wonder if it will ever go to court - one person suing another individual.

Bet it happens eventually.

D
 
Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
It will be odd to be able to sue a person for spamming - I wonder if it will ever go to court - one person suing another individual.

Bet it happens eventually.
Click to expand...

i put my money on some ex friends or lovers... the one who did the dumping sends the other one some type of forward a few weeks/months after the breakup. the dumped one is still bitter, and lashes back in court!
 
How does eveyone find that the junk mail filter works for them in the Mac OS X's mail software program?
 
Originally posted by wdlove
How does eveyone find that the junk mail filter works for them in the Mac OS X's mail software program?
Click to expand...
It wasn't especially accurate for me, so I edit the rules by hand using Mail -> Preferences -> Rules -> Edit. I'm glad it has "Stop evaluating rules" as one of the possible actions, because some other e-mail applications I've used forgot that one.
 
Originally posted by jelloshotsrule
can i sue people for sending me dumb forwards that say i have to send it to 10 people by noon or else i'll never fall in love???
Click to expand...
You can sue anybody for anything, but I don't think the laws being enacted will give you much of a case. The laws vary in their descriptions of "the crime", but many apply only to the senders of unsolicited e-mail in large quantities, e.g., tens of thousands or more.
 
It seems to me that the best way to go here is to try some of the same approaches that the RIAA (filthy bastards) are using to combat P2P file sharing. Place the burden not on the spammer or the company being advertised, but on the ISP. So far their suit against Verizon has been successful, and it sets a precedent to some degree. I'll guarantee that 95% or more of the spam that originates in the US will stop when ISPs start seeing spammers as financial and legal liabilities. Also, some sort of database listing all known spammers could be used by the ISPs to deny or severely restrict service to known spammers. Just a drunken thought... ;)
 
wow, $500! :D

I really hardly ever get any spam at all anymore, since I changed my e-mail adress a few months ago. I might get one spam every couple weeks. And, usually the mail app notices it is spam. :)
 
if this would pass, i'd e a millionaire. and i remember once i got 52 000 emails from apple in my inbox. :)

normally the moderate 50 - 200 spams a day would be anough to not make me work. all i'd need would be 20 hotmail accounts and using them in public places like foras... :D
 
Originally posted by paulwhannel
only way spam will stop-- redesign the way email works. if security is implemented, it would be easy to stop spam with laws. but the current email system is far too trusting...

god i hate spam...
:)
pnw
Click to expand...

While I hated the idea the first time I heard it, I say let's have an email tax. If every email cost $.01 to send it wouldn't make much of a dent for the average person. Spammers who send over a million messages a day will be crippled.

Dan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back