Reporting Spam
- Thread starter alex
- Start date
EvilDruidTalena
New Member
Yes it is
If it's in your email (especially yahoo!) then you go to the top and press "this is spam" If not, you should call your ISP/DSL provider and talk to them (NOT the police lol)
It is illegal in Maryland:
http://www.spamlaws.com/state/md.html
However, it is a civil issue, not a criminal one. Therefore, there is no one to report it to. If you can locate the culprit, you can drag him to small claims court and get $500.
Chances are that you aren't going to find him.
Certain types of SPAMMING are now criminal offenses in Virginia.
What is probably going to happen in the near future is that the Congress is going to get legislation through that basically makes it illegal - on a federal level - to send commercial email with false headers, deceptive subject lines and content, via someone else's server w/o their permission (open relays).
However, they are going to open the floodgates for "legitimate" companies to SPAM you legally. By definition, SPAM is any UNSOLICITED commercial email. Congress is going to ensure that there is an OPT-OUT system as opposed to an OPT-IN system as there should be. Then the "legitimate" companies are going to find all kinds of loopholes to make it difficult to get off their lists, i.e. well you opted out of mailings for our toothbrush department - this mail came from our toothpaste group and is perfectly legit IAW U.S.C. blah-blah. I have already received quite a bit of SPAM directly from IBM at a Yahoo address I have-despite using their removal link.
http://www.spamlaws.com/state/md.html
However, it is a civil issue, not a criminal one. Therefore, there is no one to report it to. If you can locate the culprit, you can drag him to small claims court and get $500.
Chances are that you aren't going to find him.
Certain types of SPAMMING are now criminal offenses in Virginia.
What is probably going to happen in the near future is that the Congress is going to get legislation through that basically makes it illegal - on a federal level - to send commercial email with false headers, deceptive subject lines and content, via someone else's server w/o their permission (open relays).
However, they are going to open the floodgates for "legitimate" companies to SPAM you legally. By definition, SPAM is any UNSOLICITED commercial email. Congress is going to ensure that there is an OPT-OUT system as opposed to an OPT-IN system as there should be. Then the "legitimate" companies are going to find all kinds of loopholes to make it difficult to get off their lists, i.e. well you opted out of mailings for our toothbrush department - this mail came from our toothpaste group and is perfectly legit IAW U.S.C. blah-blah. I have already received quite a bit of SPAM directly from IBM at a Yahoo address I have-despite using their removal link.
Thanks. I don't usually get very much SPAM as earthlink is fairly good about catching it. Most of what I do get you can tell by the subject line or who it is from. This one was distrubing because it said "Transaction Confirmation" in the subject and I thought "I don't remember buying anything recently" but thought hubby did. What a surprise when I opened it to find an add for a porno site with pictures included!
That is what really ticked me off!
That is what really ticked me off!
That's the deceptive subject trick - make it sound important or hard to resist - so the victim at least sees the spam before deleting it. Even old pros like me occassionally get tempted to read such messages just on the off-chance that it actually is valid.
Another good trick is to make the subject sound personal like, "hey, why haven't you written back."
The best one I've seen yet is an email that says you have a secret admirer who is "too shy to tell you to your face. So they have used our secret admirer service to contact you. Come to our site and find out who it is." The message looks very convincing. Then you go to the website and it actually looks legitimate. Then they tell you that you have to guess who your secret admirer is by entering the email addresses of everyone you think it might be
. So, if you actually fall for it at that point, you end up giving up email addresses of all your friends to the SPAMMERS who are happy to add them to their SPAM lists. Pretty deceitful.
Another good trick is to make the subject sound personal like, "hey, why haven't you written back."
The best one I've seen yet is an email that says you have a secret admirer who is "too shy to tell you to your face. So they have used our secret admirer service to contact you. Come to our site and find out who it is." The message looks very convincing. Then you go to the website and it actually looks legitimate. Then they tell you that you have to guess who your secret admirer is by entering the email addresses of everyone you think it might be
. So, if you actually fall for it at that point, you end up giving up email addresses of all your friends to the SPAMMERS who are happy to add them to their SPAM lists. Pretty deceitful.