Last month I did something that many college students do atleast once in their lives: I opened up a new e-mail account.
Tons of free e-mail providers are begging us to take up twomegabytes of their space, and Hotmail (operated by Microsoft) is noexception.
A few days later I opened my account, I was surprised to find 30e-mails in my inbox -- none from people I know -- telling me abouthow I can get "free pay-per-view" and "cheap loan rates." Oneperson wanted me to "go on a blind date with over 100,000singles!"
I also received a note from "Paul," who was not my old friendfrom high school, but rather a salesman for an herbal alternativeto Viagra.
As I sat there in front of the visual aid "Paul" sent with hissales pitch, I couldn't help but think, "Either the person that hadthis e-mail account before me was a really dirty bird or this isthe worst case of unsolicited e-mailing I've ever seen."
Spam, the common name for unwanted e-mails, now supplies 60percent of all e-mail traffic on the Western Internet, according towww.spamhouse.org. The site estimates that that spam will increaseto 70 percent by January 2004, and it seems that we can do verylittle.
Businesses apparently know that spam is big money. MSNBCrecently followed an e-mail it received regarding low mortgagerates through several layers to big-name insurance companies whoindirectly pay spammers 25 cents to $12 per person. Spamhouseestimates that each spammer sends from 10 to 50 million e-mails aday -- and that is a lot of Viagra!
That is also a lot of angry people sending foul replies andsigning up on "remove me" lists, which only lets the spammers knowwhich addresses work.
Now, however, the federal government has gotten involved.
The Senate unanimously passed this month the "can spam" bill,which is designed to stop people from disguising their realidentities, using deceptive subject headers and not offering a wayfor people to opt out from future e-mails.
Well, this might stop "Paul," but antispam software isn't bulletproof, and many people who pay outside organizations to helpusually regret it.
According to the Associated Press, even the senators who passedthe bill said that it probably wouldn't work immediately. We can'tsue every person that sends us an unwanted e-mail.
Some say that consumers are to blame. They obviously registeredsomewhere they shouldn't have, but, hypothetically, just because Iregistered for a newsletter from www.Forbes.com doesn't mean that Ineed information from www.e-diets.com. That doesn't make sense.Besides, according to MSNBC, companies can get e-mails withoutknowing where they came from.
So forget about that perfect e-mail address you had in mind.It's either already taken or in a month, you will have 300 e-mailsinvading the inbox that you didn't ask for.
The Federal Trade Commission said that two-thirds of spamcontains false information, but most of us don't care about what'sbeing said. Three-thirds of spam is annoying. I want to know whenthey are going to help us with that.
Write to Gregory at handsomegreg@hotmail.com
visit http://www.twiff.com
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