Porn Spammers Thumb Noses At FTC, CAN-SPAM

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: EEkid () aol com
Date: May 29, 2004 8:00:07 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Porn Spammers Thumb Noses At FTC, CAN-SPAM


Porn Spammers Thumb Noses At FTC, CAN-SPAM

 Thu May 27, 7:00 PM ET

Gregg Keizer, TechWeb News

Spammers pitching pornography are largely ignoring the Federal Trade  
Commission's recent requirements, message-filtering firms said  
Thursday.

 Fewer than one in six pornographic unsolicited e-mails scanned by MX  
Logic complied with CAN-SPAM's new rules, said Scott Chasin, the  
Denver-based company's chief technology officer.

 As part of the implementation of the CAN-SPAM Act, which went into  
effect Jan. 1, the FTC ruled last week that all pornographic e-mail  
must carry the label "SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT" in the subject head. The  
notice is intended to warn recipients that a message contains  
sexually-oriented material, as well as to make it easier for users,  
businesses, and Internet providers to block such messages.

 "We're not seeing a huge compliance with the new rulings," said  
Chasin, whose company scanned a sampling of 12,000 pornographic  
messages during the seven days since the FTC began requiring the label.  
Only 15.3 percent of the porn spam was properly labeled.

 The result isn't surprising, said Chasin, since the porn industry  
makes even more use of underground spamming techniques -- including  
proxies and zombies, hijacked computers that spew spam unbeknownst to  
their owners -- than the spam business overall.

 "Porn spam is usually the dirtiest, no pun intended, from the  
distribution method perspective," said Chasin.

 What did make Chasin pause was that early compliance by the porn  
industry was significantly higher than general compliance with the  
CAN-SPAM Act.

 "What really was surprising was that we're seeing less compliance with  
CAN-SPAM than with porn's new labeling."

 In fact, compliance with CAN-SPAM slipped last month for the first  
time since the act was made law at the beginning of 2004. After a slow  
ramp-up, compliance with the anti-spam regulation plateaued around  
three percent, said Chasin, but in April, it dipped to an even more  
disappointing one percent.

 "There's a decline in compliance across the board," he said, and added  
that it was "stating the obvious" to call CAN-SPAM a failure in its  
effort to stem spam. "Most consumers can recognize that just by looking  
in their inboxes."

 Although it's difficult to tell why porn spammers are following the  
rules 15 times more often than other spammers, Chasin put forward  
several theories, ranging from the more specific FTC requirements for  
pornographic e-mails to the porn industry's habit of trying to follow  
the law knowing that if they don't, the hammer will fall.

 Other messaging filtering firms have also done preliminary research  
into porn spam compliance with CAN-SPAM, but have come up with  
different results.

 Brightmail, an acquisition target of security firm Symantec, reported  
that its analysis of mail during a 40-hour post-FTC ruling period  
showed about 40 percent of pornographic e-mail used the  
SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT label, or a variation of it. (MX Logic only counted  
those messages that used the exact label required by the FTC.)

 However, Brightmail pooh-poohed the idea that porn spammers were  
making a sincere effort to comply. "This is an attempt by spammers to  
make their messages look as though they are in compliance with the law,  
when in most cases they are not," a Brightmail spokesperson said in an  
e-mail.

 Whether more porn spammers, or spammers in general, will follow the  
letter of the law is unclear, added MX Logic's Chasin, and will likely  
depend on how aggressively the government continues its crackdown on  
spammers.

 Last week, the FBI claimed it had identified over 100 significant  
spammers, and would target half of them for possible prosecution after  
investigations conclude.

 "We've already seen some of the first prosecutions under CAN-SPAM, but  
I don't see any real deterrence aftershock," said Chasin.

 "Maybe if the FBI (news - web sites) leads a more aggressive  
investigation and prosecution, we might see some additional deterrence,  
but that's not likely until later in the year."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=74&ncid=74&e=3&u=/cmp/ 
20040528/tc_cmp/21400244








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