--- Josh Tiner <jtiner@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> Ok Guys,
>
> Something happened to me today by a local Tampa Bay
> certification farm
> sending out e-mails to LOTS of people, hawking their
> "guaranteed to pass
> courses" (and free classes), and simply put ALL the
> email addresses in
> the TO: field of the e-mail. I just noticed this
> when I decided to stop
> being lazy and send a reply back respectfully
> requesting to be removed
> from all further mailings.
>
> Shouldn't this behavior be illegal?
Unfortunately at this time, it isn't, even if you tell
them you don't want to be emailed anymore (I think
California is one of the few states, if not the only
state, that has anti-spam laws on the books). There
was some attempt at legislation in Congress a year or
so ago that basically died in committee.
Under both state and federal law, you can tell a
telemarketer that you don't want to be called anymore,
and if they call again after your having told them to
stop, they are liable for $500 per occurrence under
either the Florida law (if the telemarketer is
in-state) or Federal law (if the telemarketer is in
another state). Same rules apply to junk faxes
(although the FCC is currently barred from prosecuting
by a recent appeals court decision that the Federal
junk fax law is unconstitutional). Under the federal
law, if you can prove that the breach was intentional
and not "accidental", the award triples to $1,500 per
occurrence.
The caveats -- you have to sue the company (assuming
you can even locate them to deliver service of
process) for the money, and most of these companies
typically fold and move out of town before service
ever reaches them. Even if you win, *YOU* are
responsible for collecting from the company, and the
chances of collecting are near zero with most of these
companies. Plus, the cost of the suit and collection
would likely exceed the award you obtain anyway, and
if you lose you could be forced to pay for the
company's attorney fees.
My recommended solution is for a user to open an
account on Hotmail or somewhere like that and use that
address when signing up for things or posting to
newsgroups and such (most of the spammers pull email
addresses from Usenet postings and chat rooms as well
as buying lists from other companies). I have such a
Hotmail account and it routinely gets over 50 - 60
messages a day, all of which are spam. This address
that I'm posting from receives almost no spam because
I use it for stuff that I *know* doesn't get passed on
to spam address collectors.
=====
Steven W. Buehler | swbuehler@yahoo.com
Web Site: http://www.sanctuaryweb.org
Music Site: http://www.mp3.com/renaitre
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