FTC Leads Charge Against Spam Scams

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July 14, 1998 (2:26 PM EDT)

By Mary Mosquera,

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Federal Trade Commission declared war Tuesday on the annoying, and often fraudulent, junk e-mail called spam.

The agency released a list of the 12 most common scams found in unsolicited commercial e-mail -- including business opportunity scams, money-making schemes, and work-at-home offers.

"The Dirty Dozen list of junk e-mail is a tip-off to a rip-off," said Jodie Bernstein, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. One recent Internet schemer sent out fraudulent e-mail asking for contributions for victims of Florida's devastating brush fires, Bernstein said.
Check out the FTC's Dirty Dozen

At the same time, a group of 30 ISPs, trade groups, and companies that do business over the Internet announced recommendations to fight unwanted e-mail.

The Ad-Hoc Working Group on Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, convened by the FTC, recommended greater user control over spam, public policies to prohibit the use of fraudulent headers or addresses by senders of unwanted e-mail, and technology and policies that work together to address spam globally. The working group, led by the public-interest group Center for Democracy and Technology, includes America Online, AT&T, Microsoft, MCI, and IBM.

"The report shows why even nonfraudulent junk e-mail threatens to destroy the viability of Internet e-mail," said J.D. Falk of e-mail outsource company Critical Path, and a co-founder of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail. Unscrupulous marketers using junk e-mail to promote their businesses do damage to Internet businesses and impose huge costs on Internet users, Falk said.

"Unfortunately, there is no silver-bullet solution, only piecemeal solutions," said Jill Lesser, AOL's director of law and public policy. "We must work together with legislators and regulators."

AOL's use of civil court -- targeting spammers -- and other FTC actions have been effective, she said. Besides the FTC, the Justice Department and various state attorneys general are grappling with the spam issue, Lesser said.

Spammers jump from ISP to ISP, using false headers or addresses, to make it difficult to track down the culprit or even send back the unwanted e-mail, said FTC spokeswoman Eileen Harrington. Using false addresses is reason enough for the FTC to investigate, she said.

AOL now has filters in place at the gateway to reduce spam, Lesser said. The working group is considering putting together a list of what filtering options are available, said Deidre Mulligan, staff counsel of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

"Almost any ISP would prefer not to have to have a legislative solution, but we've come to realize we need a stick with our carrot."
-- Rachel Luxemburg
LinkAmerica Internet Services

Legislation, such as the Netizens Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J), is supported by Rachel Luxemburg, president of LinkAmerica Internet Services in New York, and member of the Internet Service Provider Consortium, a group of small ISPs.

"Almost any ISP would prefer not to have to have a legislative solution, but we've come to realize we need a stick with our carrot," Luxemburg said. Under the Smith bill, a spammer must have permission of the recipient to send e-mail. "It is an opt-in rather than an opt-out proposal," she said.

Spam, for a small ISP, takes up an insane amount of time, from six hours to two days to clean up after one attack, Luxemburg said. "The ISP may be just the relay for the spammer, but you get all the complaints," she said. "And it's not just the outbound spam, but all the e-mails that are bounced back."

The FTC asks that consumers forward junk e-mail to its special mailbox, which has received more than 250,000 pieces of spam.