The FTC takes submissions of forwarded spam from consumers and keeps a database of them to be used as a resource of information on email marketers (sorting to find criminals). Many used to send their email to uce@ftc.gov, but now they have a new address: spam@uce.gov. Not sure why, but thought you all ought to know that they are phasing the first address out.

This is the first article I’ve seen which truly understands how a spammer operates and how they avoid ‘getting caught.’ There’s nothing here that gives us spam-fighters a new understanding of how to fight junk mailers, but this is good reading for those who are curious about who spammers are and how they got started and continue to thrive.

In Australia, they’re crediting the new anti-spam laws for eliminating a large chunk of Austrlian-based spam organizations. While this sounds like great news, it makes you wonder why Australian spammers went so quickly and quietly when American spammers have not felt as threatened by our own laws which carry fairly stiff penalties as well.

Anyone have a theory?

Mark Hall at Computer World makes the case that email will ultimately go away because it’s no longer an effective tool in the workplace and that it will be replaced by newer technology. He says that enhanced PDAs will probably be the way we communicate electronically in the near future when email dies a grisly death.

I understand the frustration with email, but I disagree with his diagnosis and his prediction. No matter what the cost in the workplace of phones and fax machines, they’re not going anywhere. Junk faxing and telemarketing hasn’t killed off those forms of communication. Spam won’t kill email. Email might take on a slightly new form - probably invisibly to users. But as long as there are PCs and the internet, we will want a simple and cost-effective way to communicate across it. Email is a cheap and critical way to trasmit all kinds of data. Literally billions upon billions of dollars depend on the medium and thousands of businesses require email to operate properly. To suggest that email on PCs will die and that people will go to cell phones exclusively to deliver text-based messages and send attachments is just… silly. If I’m sitting at a keyboard and monitor and creating a word document that other people need to have, I will not accept that I must utilize a third piece of hardware to trasmit that data. It is inconvenient. More so than spam. This is to say nothing of cost. I can get any number of free web-based email accounts. If I don’t mind viewing some ads while I type, I can get free internet access. For a lot of people around the world, that’s a far better option than buying a $400 PDA that requires over $30 a month in subscription fees to use. Actually, for a lot of people, if there’s ANY hard cost to email, it’s too much.

Why would spammers be in Florida…?

“Florida is relatively attractive to folks who are running scam-type operations because it has very favorable personal bankruptcy laws,” Mozena said.

“If they get sued, they’re able to hold on to a lot more of their personal possessions.”

Plus, you got those great beaches.

Scott Richter’s Opt-InRealBig settled out of court for a measly 50 grand with the New York Attorney General, when the original amounts were in the millions. Richter claims his involvement with two other email companies was one that he did not profit from - something he barely had anything to do with. I guess the DA agreed with him.

This USA Today article says the anti-spam industry is flooded with all kinds of companies right now, but that by the end of 2005, you’ll be down to a dozen obvious vendor choices. Given that the industry is dominated by players who are after the corporate space, we’ll be one of the dozen with only one or two true competitors who are going after the consumer space. Well, assuming this analyst is right about the consolidation of vendors.

The writer of this article suggests the new kinds of popular spam scams are the ideas implemented by organized crime rings. Try this paragraph:

Spam is now a hotbed for a variety of financial scams, such as phishing and “pump and dump” stock tipping, and serves as a black market for illegal goods such as fake pharmaceuticals and counterfeit software.

If you don’t buy their stock, they might break your e-legs. Actually, they’ll probably… just send you more spam.

The spamer is ordered to pay almost $4 million in damages.

According to Microsoft, the company has filed 60 lawsuits in the U.S. against spammers in the U.S. and other countries. Of those cases, Microsoft so far has settled four, won six by default, had one summary judgement, and had one case dismissed.

The company has been awarded $54 million in judgements from spammers, five of whom were among the top 10 known spammers, Microsoft said.

Here’s the rest.

A teenager who got canned from his job thought it would be real funny to spam his former employers and try to shut down their website. It worked. He did it. I’m sure he thought it was a great prank. Oops, though. Looks like the cops and the former employers aren’t laughing. Kid’s looking at 6 months in the slammer.