| Author | Content |
Birdsall
Holland, MI
(Zone 6a)
October 16, 2003
04:06 PM Post #682987
| Where spam is taking us
by David Batstone
My mother sent an e-mail to me last week recommending a miracle pill that would make me smarter, grow more hair on my balding head, and enlarge my male member. One pill, such a deal. Oh, and if I acted quickly, I could chop a percentage point off my mortgage rate. I was so excited I re-read the note. It was then I noticed that the e-mail began, "Dear Friend." Suspicion crept in; my mom never calls me that.
I'm now lowering my expectations. I'd be satisfied merely to find a magic pill that will make my spam go away. Seriously, it's ruining my love affair with e-mail. Opening my Web connect used to be a high note of the day. I now dread the barrage of sexual offers and persistent requests from African diplomats for my help in smuggling millions of dollars out of their overflowing national treasury.
Spam is out of control; it accounts for a full 50% of all electronic mail. And it's getting worse. Spammers hurdle every obstacle thrown up in the ether to stop them. A filter can block e-mail from addresses an individual doesn't list as an approved sender. But along came virus-powered spam, so that junk mail is likely to come straight from the computers of closest friends and family.
The interdependence of computer networks makes e-mail an easy target. A virus launched one morning can infect computers all over the world by the end of the day. The Slammer virus, which hit in January of this year, spread to more than 100,000 computers in the first 10 minutes alone. The author of the SoBig virus, another of the year's more dastardly villains, turned thousands of computers into virtual slaves posed to do its bidding as electronic mailmen. Information security teams are worried that virus worms already have niggled into major corporate or public networks, lying undetected until they may perform some act of sabotage or thievery.
Don't look for government to send in the cavalry. When Congress considered strict measures to punish the delivery of unsolicited e-mail, marketers who rely on the Internet to recruit customers and suppliers sounded a hue and cry. If it had any moxie, the Federal Trade Commission would step in and establish a consumer opt-out for spam just as it did for telemarketing. Ever since I put my name on the telemarketing "do not call list," my family has won back our dinner hour. I'd love to regain my appetite for e-mail as well.
Unfortunately, even tough laws may be ineffective against spam. Spammers who start to feel regulatory heat can move their operations overseas, a process that indeed is already under way. Regardless, junk e-mail is global. I'm sure that I am not the only person receiving a regular jolt of Japanese porn ads.
Should we be surprised that the Internet is turning into an analog to our social world? Though the Web first emerged as a Mr. Rogers neighborhood with unlatched doors and open curiosity to strangers, spam has turned the Web into streets of fear and suspicion. How revealing that software filters allowed individuals to vet their approved senders into "white lists." If you're going to set up a gated community with digital guards at the entrance, surely you would want to keep non-whites out!
It's easy to be cynical, of course, and underestimate our primal need for trust and safety. I fully anticipate that the wide-open e-mail system to which we have become accustomed will fade into the horizon behind us. The Web will devolve into millions of micro-networks, each self-contained, serving its own trusted circle. No one - machine or human - will be allowed into that community of trust without knowledge of a secret, individualized password. Some private forms of communication even will demand a biometric (e.g., a fingerprint) proof of identity.
So much for a brave new world. Technology does not uproot the constant themes of trust and betrayal in our human drama. It simply gives us new tools to write the story.
*This commentary appears in the November-December issue of Sojourners magazine. To see the complete package of insight Sojourners brings you in the most current issue, link to:
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.home
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Birdsall
Holland, MI
(Zone 6a)
October 16, 2003
10:30 PM Post #683377
| BY THE NUMBERS ^top
Losing the war on spam
Spam as a percentage of all e-mail:
2000 2%
2001 15%
2002 41%
2003 48%
2004 (projected) 53%
2005 (projected) 60%
The chance of getting spam if your e-mail address appears in:
Chat rooms 100%
Newsgroups 86%
Free personal Web pages (such as Angelfire) 50%
Message board postings 27%
E-mail service directories 9%
*Source: Brightmail, Federal Trade Commission, Ferris, Jupiter Research, Radicati Group, Wired magazine
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Ulrich
Manhattan Beach, CA
(Zone 11)
October 17, 2003
01:32 AM Post #683462
| Winning the war on Paragraphs, eh? |
Birdsall
Holland, MI
(Zone 6a)
October 17, 2003
10:12 AM Post #683629
| More paragraphs -- less pornographs.
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philomel
Termes d'Armagnac
France
(Zone 8a)
 October 17, 2003
10:24 AM Post #683634
| LOL U2!
I'm definitely steering clear of chat rooms, newsgroups, free personal web pages and message boards then :(
Perhaps that's why I still get virtually no spam :) |
DoW_Oldman
St. Petersburg, FL
(Zone 10b)
October 17, 2003
05:08 PM Post #683973
| The real problem of spam is not in your box. The internet is a pipe. It can only move so much "water" till it max. out.
That is the real problem IMO.
Olds |
Birdsall
Holland, MI
(Zone 6a)
October 17, 2003
05:46 PM Post #683994
| OLDS - I do not understand your statement. Could you please explain it to me.
Thanks.
BIRD |
gardenwife
Newark, OH
(Zone 5b)
October 17, 2003
06:07 PM Post #684004
| I think Olds is saying the problem with spam isn't so much the personal inconvenience it causes us when we have to delete so many junk mails, but the huge amount of traffic it causes on the web, bogging it down.
It clogs the pipes. It causes traffic jams on the Information Super Highway. It's like adding a bunch of junker cars to an already congested highway system, keeping everyone from moving smoothly along.
This message was edited Oct 17, 2003 6:08 PM |
DoW_Oldman
St. Petersburg, FL
(Zone 10b)
October 17, 2003
06:22 PM Post #684016
| Correct GW. The way it is growing one day the net might very well stop. Maybe then we (who paid the most for it, Taxpayers,) might be granted access to the internet-2! The real super highway! At the moment it is only for the higher thinking brains. Not us little minded folks.
Olds |
Birdsall
Holland, MI
(Zone 6a)
October 17, 2003
08:11 PM Post #684101
| Hmmm...Internet2! That is a new idea for me. Who is developing and using it? Or is it just in the conceptual stage?
Bird
This message was edited Oct 17, 2003 8:57 PM |
DoW_Oldman
St. Petersburg, FL
(Zone 10b)
October 17, 2003
08:54 PM Post #684134
| Naw it is up and going...
However, it is not for the public...but we footed most of the bill!
Military, and Research. It is what broadband is to dialup when you compair it to the net we use. |
Birdsall
Holland, MI
(Zone 6a)
October 17, 2003
08:59 PM Post #684138
| It sounds to me that the government is reinventing the internet. Do you think the public will eventually have access to it like they eventually had on the internet?
Bird |
DoW_Oldman
St. Petersburg, FL
(Zone 10b)
October 18, 2003
08:06 PM Post #684826
| Can't say if the public will have access. Who knows. When and if there is a net3 maybe we will get the hand me downs. |
Birdsall
Holland, MI
(Zone 6a)
October 18, 2003
09:46 PM Post #684895
| What do you think keeps the spammers going? Are some people gullible enough to open them and do business with them. This goes for many aspects of our culture--pornography heads the list, but I wonder about tele-marketing, casinos, lotteries, high priced atletes, credit card debt, etc.
I makes me feel sometimes that our economy is a house of cards.
Bird, who leads a rather spartan life. |
tcfromky
Mercer, PA
(Zone 5a)
October 18, 2003
11:52 PM Post #685066
| Bird; rather spartan answers to your questions. In the order you asked them:
Us. Yes.
And in response to the last sentence of your first paragraph;
"Our culture." This says it all my friend!
TC... |
sundry
Franklin, LA
(Zone 9a)
October 19, 2003
12:27 AM Post #685097
| I often wonder who it is that makes spam-mongering and telemarketing worthwhile as a buisness.
*tounge in cheek*
I feel like people who are gullible enough to open and purchase from spam messages are gullible enough to be made to fear spam. Ya know, like those fake virus warnings ... if we could start a rumor that there is a new virus and the subject line of the message it generates is a random sales pitch ...
Nahh, it could never work ...
Cheri' |
tcfromky
Mercer, PA
(Zone 5a)
October 19, 2003
10:22 AM Post #685293
| Cheri'; "I often wonder who it is that makes spam-mongering and telemarketing worthwhile as a buisness."
IMHO,
I think the possible answer to the above is it's us that make it worthwhile.
After all, we're a capitalist country.
TC... |
Birdsall
Holland, MI
(Zone 6a)
October 19, 2003
10:47 AM Post #685316
| It is staggering to me to realize how much power is held untapped by us, the people who lead ordinary lives.
If none of us responded to spam or telemarketers, etc., could that make a difference?
Bird |
golddog
Western, PA
(Zone 6a)
October 19, 2003
11:19 AM Post #685349
| BIRD, they would be gone in a flash! We have the power, but not the unity. |
tcfromky
Mercer, PA
(Zone 5a)
October 19, 2003
12:07 PM Post #685386
| golddog; couldn't have said it no better myself!
TC... |
Birdsall
Holland, MI
(Zone 6a)
October 19, 2003
02:09 PM Post #685475
| Spread the word from the mountain tops!
Bird |
gardenwife
Newark, OH
(Zone 5b)
October 20, 2003
01:16 AM Post #686034
| As far as what makes them do it, spam has a very low cost to produce. Even if a spammer rents or buys a list of e-mail addresses, not just culling them himself with a bot that searches the web for 'em, *any* return is profit. I know direct mail companies consider it good if something like 2% of the people receiving a piece even *look* at it, but I'm not sure what spammers consider a good return. |
philomel
Termes d'Armagnac
France
(Zone 8a)
October 20, 2003
03:32 AM Post #686080
| Yep gw - NO hope of them giving up :(
I must just be lucky as I don't get much. I have tried to avoid the things I know can give them a lead on me, but still use the web a fare bit |
Birdsall
Holland, MI
(Zone 6a)
October 22, 2003
05:25 PM Post #688580
| Tom Mahon writes from Walnut Creek, California:
In response to David Batstone's essay on spam: I'm tired of fighting it, too, and like the guy in "1984," have learned to Love Big Brother...
Spam-I-Am
That Spam-I-Am!
That Spam-I-Am!
I do not like that Spam-I-Am!
I do not like it after dark
I do not want it while at wark.
For now it's just on my PC
But soon, no doubt, on my TV.
I do not want Nigerian bonds
Or an organ weighing several tons.
I shudder hearing "I've got mail"
When chances are it's just a hail
Of bogus offers, false come-ons
That leave me feeling we're e-pawns.
It seems to slur the ersatz ham
I quite enjoyed as a young man.
"Try it, try it, you will see
Spam-I-Am is good for thee."
If I try it, let me be,
I'll try it once, just once you see.
Mmmm, this is quite good, I must agree
As fun as swimming in the sea.
I like the thought of low cost meds
And sights of frisky young co-eds.
I surrender to your scam!
Thank you, thank you, Spam-I-Am!
(Now as I stand on wobbly legs
I wonder, do you sell green eggs?)
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Cheryl_IL
(Zone 5b)
October 24, 2003
10:49 PM Post #690924
| only 48%?!? My guess is that at least 98% of my internet e-mail is spam (I don't use it for much except to register on a forum or two and I stay out of chat rooms and message boards). But, they're free and a condition of using one was to accept ads from sponsors. Almost nothing in my ISP account. |
tcfromky
Mercer, PA
(Zone 5a)
October 25, 2003
09:48 PM Post #691625
| Same here Cheryl_IL.
TC... |
