Can the Spam!

Don’t despair: Someone out there does care that you’re angry about junk e-mail. Sadly, that doesn’t mean you can wipe out the intrusion.

My venting against unsolicited commercial messages brought out intense emotions from readers--or what one America Online subscriber called “fellow sufferers.” And that was even before AOL’s latest telemarketing snafu, in which it agreed and then unagreed to sell phone numbers to direct marketers.

“More power to you,” said one e-mail correspondent. “I think you really hit the nail on the head,” said another.

My prime target was AOL’s “in-your-face” ads pitching products when you sign on, particularly its new premium game service, WorldPlay. But the underlying problem goes way beyond AOL. The obnoxious “Make Money Fast!!!” and “On-Line Profits!” messages come through all Internet service providers.

The writers of those bogus offers are the real culprits, and they are getting more numerous, grating and underhanded all the time.

I asked for solutions on how to stop the unsolicited e-mail, or “spam.”

The most widely recommended course of action is a simple, important start for those who subscribe to AOL: Change your preferences at keyword “marketing prefs.” Whether or not you’ve ever done so, it’s worth your while to go through each set of choices to make sure AOL is following your wishes. Not doing so was my biggest mistake.

And check out AOL’s “postmaster” keyword. The site offers updates on its anti-spam efforts and gives you easy links to its PreferredMail service and other mail controls. As an AOL member e-mailed me, the other big consumer online services don’t offer even that much of an option, so give AOL some credit.

Judi Nagle points us in the direction of a Web site her brother discovered that is dedicated to tactics for ditching the vermin. She also gleefully notes that having a “.mil” e-mail address, as she does because of her job working for the Army goes a long way toward eliminating the trash.

Fil Feit, a Reston, Va., software developer who says he has seen the Internet turn into a “commercial hell,” urges everyone to boycott the pitch-meisters.

He used to use a “junk-mail remailer,” a piece of software that spits the e-mail back at whoever sent it. But now, the mass e-mailers are using fake return addresses, so that strategy often fails.

Feit now writes polite messages to the Internet service provider that originated the offending e-mail. You can find it by examining the detail of its “header.” In his e-mail to the ISP, Feit attaches the original e-mail and tells them, “I think this idiot belongs to you.” He gets a response most of the time.

One AOL member suggested that ISPs should refuse to deliver mail that has more than a specified number of “cc,” or carbon copy, addresses. Because the junksters buy or generate huge mailing lists, that would certainly eliminate most of the junk coming to me. The downside, of course, would be that legitimate--even solicited--e-mail couldn’t be delivered either.

Neal J. Friedman, a Washington, D.C., telecommunications and computer lawyer, is a fan of the “trespass to chattels” legal argument against junk e-mail. “It’s as old as dirt,” he said of the theory. It’s based on Old English common law that prohibits trespassing and holds you liable for damage you cause while trespassing.

“Most people think of it in terms of land, but a couple of ISPs have used it successfully to win injunctions against spammers.”

Another AOLer said we should be writing to our federal representatives for action. There really is a bill in Congress that would make junk e-mail a crime. Three, actually.

Ray Everett-Church, the Washington representative for the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, says his group is supporting a bill introduced in May by Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) that would apply the same restrictions to unsolicited commercial e-mail that now apply to junk faxes.

* Victoria Shannon can be e-mailed at VShannon on America Online, CompuServe, MSN and Prodigy.