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Effectiveness of CAN-SPAM Legislation Questioned

posted by NCommander on Saturday July 18 2015, @08:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the more-spam-for-spam-assassion dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

A lighter piece on the performance of the CAN-SPAM anti-spam law:

...while I've accepted that my work inbox is going to be filled with junk, I go to great lengths to keep my private e-mail pristine. I use a personal domain instead of an emailprovider.com address, and the spammers haven't found it. Even my junk folder is empty. It's glorious.

Or at least it was, until I made the mistake of getting something at Best Buy. For a full four weeks, I received one or two e-mails a day from the ubiquitous retail store with subject lines like "4-HOUR SALE: Starts now," "You'd be crazy to pass on this," "Amazing deals end soon," and "Jon, save 15% on ink and toner."
...
It's been four weeks and my Best Buy account still hasn't been deleted. But the e-mails finally stopped, not through the efforts of Precious, Rod, or Helen, but because on June 25 I decided to write this article and contacted Best Buy's public relations team to give them a chance to comment.

I described the situation, mentioned that I had just filed a complaint with the FTC, and asked why it would take even 10 business days to stop spam e-mails or two to four weeks to delete an account.

"These are things that corporations with modern, functioning computer systems should be able to accomplish in seconds," I wrote. "I would be interested in learning the technical details of the system you are using so we can figure out what the problem is."

It's a common tale of woe. The author of TFA only got the spam to stop because of the PR hit he promised to land at Best Buy's feet. CAN-SPAM hasn't stopped them. What can, if you're not a journalist?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2015, @01:16AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2015, @01:16AM (#210921)

    In that case he should do the only thing he can do: Submit every single one of those mails to a place like Spamcop and eventually they will get blocked for spamming via an RBL. They aren't obeying the CAN-SPAM rules, regardless of who they are that should result (in theory, as long as its reported... HINT HINT...) in the domain being blacklisted and not being able to send mail anymore. Thats how this system is going to work, not through legislation, fines, or laws. Self policing of the internet is the only way. RBL providers like Spamcop and Spamhaus should be informed of BestBuy's emails and eventually they should be blacklisted.