Like a 21st century Boston Tea Party, the Spam Revolt launched in July signals important changes for direct marketers using e-mail. Anti-spam groups dumped 150,000 unsolicited e-mails on Congress to support the “Can Spam Act” sponsored by Congressman Gary Miller (R-CA).
The bill would enable Internet service providers (ISPs) to sue unscrupulous direct marketers up to $25,000 a day for unsolicited commercial messages sent through their systems. Rep. Miller calls the bill “a market-based solution” that lets Internet consumers and ISPs determine which messages are spam – junk mail – and sue senders $50 per message. The federal bill, modeled after a state law Rep. Miller sponsored while in the California legislature, has been before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade & Consumer Protection since June 24. It was introduced June 10.
The big complaint is against pornographic come-ons and get-rich-quick schemes. Anti-spam groups set up a Spam Recycling Center (spamrecycle.com) in May to collect unwanted e-mails from consumers. It got 150,000 in two months. Of those, 30 percent promoted pornographic Web sites; another 30 percent were moneymaking proposals including “surf the Net for money” and unspecified “work from home” offers, including 4,200 messages that promoted spamming.
Anti-spam groups expect the Federal Trade Commission’s fraud division to investigate the scam spams delivered in July. “They can’t stop people from spamming, but we hope to give them a tool that helps them go after the illegal ones,” says Anthony Phipps, spokesman for ChooseYourMail.com, Chicago, an opt-in e-mail marketing service that only delivers to consumers who ask. Subscribers fill out a profile requesting e-mail offers in categories like travel, apparel, and sweepstakes.
ChooseYourMail.com matches its clients’ ads against its subscriber database, then charges marketers 30 cents each for ads e-mailed to subscribers. The service first reaches consumers via ISPs’ blanket messages to their own subscribers.
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