aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Porn spam in decline?
Ads mentioning real estate tycoon Donald Trump and those hawking “Penis Patch” body enhancements were among the top 10 junk e-mails in 2005, according to America Online.
Noticeably absent? Porn.
“Porn is passe when it comes to spam,” Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesman said.
Hmm. My site’s spam looks as pornographic as ever. I’ll watch for the debunking, and hope that it’s true in the meantime.
In other spam news, the FTC says spam email is leveling off and credits the federal spam law.
Richi Jennings doesn’t think so:
1. Spam levels are dropping? False.
The number of spam messages sent continue to rise. It’s possible that spam might be leveling off as a percentage of spam, but the number of legitimate messages is also rising. In other words, the number of spammy messages is still increasing.
2. But people are getting less spam, right? Irrelevant.
Yes, less spam is being delivered to people’s inboxes. But this is nothing to do with CAN-SPAM and the activities of the FTC. It’s all to do with better spam filters protecting more inboxes.
3. CAN-SPAM has caused spammers to stop spamming? Unproven.
Certain state laws appear to have made spammers think twice about spamming, but the federal CAN-SPAM Act hasn’t (yet). It’s simply too early to say—large, high-profile prosecutions take several years to come to a conclusion. Almost all the recent well-publicized punishments imposed on spammers—large fines and confiscations of property—came from prosecutions under state laws, such as those in Virgina.
It’s been three years in Europe. Just yesterday the first win was reported under their law allowing companies to be sued for sending unwanted e-mails.
