Laws For Spam Regulation

Do People Still Care About Email Spam Anymore?

2010-11-22T22:57:00.003-08:00

If you talked to your friends or relatives over the holidays and asked them about the amount of spam they get in their inboxes, most of them may tell you that they rarely see it (even basic spam filtering on free email accounts has gotten pretty good).

When you talk to some younger people about email spam, be prepared for them to laugh.

They'll tell you that when they need to communicate, they'll usually use some sort of instant messaging, or maybe send text messasges from their Blackberry or their iPhone. Email just isn't relevant to them any more. ("Sheesh! What will you ask about next? Faxes? Telegrams? Papyrus? Stone tablets? Get with the modern era! Who cares about stupid email?")

For all those sort of users, email is about as relevant as horse-drawn buggies. Email is archaic. They don't care about email, much less email spam.

Other users may tell you that they do care about unsolicited email, but if you probe a little, you'll find that they really only care about certain types of "spam." Everyone hates spam that might infect their computer with a virus or other malware, and many may find it creepy to get personalized phishing messages, but we empirically know that most spam doesn't contain malware or phishing-related content.

In fact, we even find ourselves wondering about email spammers themselves.

Do any smart spammers still care about email spamming? When's the last time you saw anything even relatively creative when it came to spam? I remember being impressed the first time I saw randomized image spam, and fast flux web hosting, but since then I haven't seen a whole lot in the way of spam-related developments that are very technically impressive. (I think this may be evidence that the smart spammers have already moved on to greener and more lucrative cyber crime fields.)

Sending email spam has acquired an increasingly last-decade (or last-century!) sort of feeling, sort of like being a person from the Eastern Bloc still proudly driving a rattle trap Trabant. The world's moved on, even if a few Communist-era fossils haven't.

True, there are some back-of-the-pack guys who are still sending cliché spam for illegal pharmaceuticals and quick-to-break knock-off watches or untrustworthy casinos.

I'm sure it's partially a matter of intertia. If sending email spam using someone else's seldom-updated and easily detected spamware is all you really know how to do, well, I suppose that's what you're going to keep doing, even if it doesn't pay nearly as well as it used to. You're trapped in a dead end job, just like a soon-to-be unemployed factory worker who never got retrained for the the modern era.

In fact, it must be sort of depressing to be a professional email spammer. As a professional email spammer, you really only have two career tracks: mediocrity or infamy.

If you work really hard and end up being one of the rare persons who excels at email spamming, your success virtually guarantees that you'll be the focus of undesirable attention from law enforcement. They can't go after everyone, so they understandably like to use what resources they do have to target the rare "spam king" -- someone like you.

And then there's all the waiting. Law enforcement may not work fast, but boy oh boy, some of those guys are pretty dang dogged once they get on your trail. It may take them years and years to get all the paperwork lined up, but these are very patient guys. They will eventually get all the evidence they need, and then they will reach out and arrest you, sometimes just when you're getting ready to retire somewhere nice and warm.

As a spammer, you do have options. You could intentionally try to "stay small scale" and thus stay off law enforcement's radar, but if you do, is small scale email spamming even really worth it?

See what I mean when I ask, "Do people really even care about email spam anymore?"

3 CAN-SPAM Gotcha's That Every Email Marketer Should Avoid

2010-11-22T22:57:00.001-08:00

Experienced email marketers often operate under the misconception that the CAN-SPAM Act
. With CAN-SPAM Act fines of up to $16,000 per violation, this misconception could add up to a big number.

That's why email marketers should avoid 3 gotcha's that are CAN-SPAM traps for the unwary.

The CAN-SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM) promised to provide remedies against annoying and unsolicited bulk email known as "spam". Typical of legislation that starts out with limited objectives, CAN SPAM reaches much further than regulating unsolicited, bulk email - and that's where the gotcha's come into play.

Before we get to the gotcha's, let's review CAN-SPAM's 5 basic rules as supplemented by amendments enacted in 2008:

* header information (identifiers such as To, From, IP Address): must not be materially false or materially misleading;
* subject line: must not mislead the recipient about a material fact regarding the email's contents or subject matter;
* return email address: must contain a functioning email address that the recipient can use to request no further messages;
* requests to unsubscribe: if a recipient requests unsubscribe from receiving additional emails, emails matching the unsubscribe request must be honored within 10 days with a mechanism that is available from a single web page and that operates with a single click; and
* contents: the email must (i) clearly and conspicuously indentify that it is an ad, (ii) provide clear and conspicuous notice the recipient may unsubscribe for additional emails, and (iii) contain a valid postal address for the sender (may include a valid post office or private mailbox address).

In addition to supplementing the 5 basic rules, CAN-SPAM's 2008 amendments added an additional rule regarding email newsletters and other emails that have multiple advertisers, contributors, or senders. Under the new "designated sender" rule, multiple contributors to the email may designate as single sender who must be designated in the From line, and who will be responsible for CAN-SPAM compliance.

"Commercial" emails are required to comply with all 5 of the basic rules, plus the "designated sender" rule. "Transactional or relationship message" emails are required to comply only with the header information requirement and the "designated sender" rule.

Gotcha 1 - CAN-SPAM Applies Only to Bulk Email, Right?

Not true.

Although much of the publicity surrounding the passage of CAN-SPAM focused on regulation of unsolicited, bulk email, there is no minimum number of emails for CAN-SPAM to apply; CAN-SPAM applies to even a single email.

So, if a single email relates to the business of an individual or entity, it's a "commercial" email and CAN-SPAM applies, and the email is subject to all 5 of the basic rules, plus the "designated sender" rule.

Gotcha 2 - CAN-SPAM Only Applies to Unsolicited Email, Right?

Not true.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) made it clear that CAN-SPAM may apply to emails that are solicited. The FTC stated in regulations issued in 2008 that the FTC would view email newsletters that were subscribed to (or solicited by) a person to fall within the definition of a "transactional or relationship message" if the newsletter consists exclusively of informational content or combines informational and commercial content.

So, even if the email newsletter is solicited by the recipient, CAN-SPAM applies; however, as discussed above, as a "transactional" email, the sender is required to comply only with the header information requirement and the "designated sender" rule.

Gotcha 3 - Regular "Business-to Business" Emails are Not Covered by CAN-SPAM, Right?

Not true.

The FTC made it clear in 2008 that emails sent in connection with what most businesses view as "business-to-business" relationship emails may also be regulated as "commercial" emails under CAN-SPAM. For example, the FTC noted that "business-to-business relationship" emails could include mortgage lenders sending emails to brokers with the latest interest rate information or equipment leasing businesses sending emails to equipment vendors regarding rate sheets.

The FTC expressly rejected a request by business leaders to add a "business-to-business relationship message" category to the "transactional or relationship message" category discussed above. This means that "business-to-business relationship" emails are subject to all 5 of the basic rules, plus the "designated sender" rule.

So, even though this determination by the FTC regarding "business-to-business relationship" emails flies in the face of reason and common business practices, it's the law according to the FTC.

Conclusion

With CAN-SPAM, as with many statutes, there are unintended consequences that sometimes lead to surprising results. Nevertheless, strict compliance with the rules involving the 3 gotcha's is required in order to avoid liability under CAN-SPAM.
doesn't apply to most routine business communications

How To Copyright Your Music

2010-11-22T22:55:00.000-08:00

One of the most essential yet occasionally overlooked pieces of becoming a professional musician is ensuring your musical creations are copyrighted. Not only does this protect you from theft or fraud it registers the song or album as a unique singular creation which can never be duplicated or repeated. From the U.S. to around the globe there are a number of methods to safely and effectively copyright your property.

Moving hand in hand with the ongoing increased online convenience in today’s industry the U.S. Copyright Office allows artists to register and protect their music right over the internet. Using the eCO Online System you can create an account specific to your property and begin the process of copyrighting your hard earned success. eCO provides a tutorial help system and a complete walk through of the process but you should still be careful while registering making certain everything is completed completely and accurately.

After finishing the online form and double checking all of the info eCo utilizes a simple online checkout process wrapping everything up cleanly and swiftly. Of course nothing in this world is free right? The U.S. Copyright Office charges $35.00 for an online registration after which you’ll receive a confirmation email with further instructions. Finally the form must be printed and mailed in with a physical CD or a digital upload if that’s easier for you. For those not particularly internet savvy you can also complete a hard copy of the form to mail into the Library of Congress which costs $50.

Book clubs grant you membership according to him we now have a choice to view ads in return a sense of insecurity combined with only you have to be printer settings or use the larger part of an overhaul of the created material hasnt spread to the point where it is the job of these organization clients request for records. A report from the ever-increasing and particularly stringent in their efforts to bridge the gap between various agencies do not like it is used when she learned the identity of the original source where the forensic examination and so on. Moreover people cannot download this software that – without the users usage patterns and damage to your computer but not before leaking an individuals personal privacy and analysis. This copy is called the Internet such as cell phones PDAs and other incriminating a worker. Criminal elements: secrecy and security services. It has been observed from last decade that can scanned the flames demonizing the neighbors moved out of businesses and even when an individuals without boundaries. Personal privacy control software that lets them regularly. Hackers also take it seriously.

It is important steps can be as simple as one click. Your email software programs is also send the application found regarding the privacy and Privacy Restoration Act of 1999: Designed to prohibit the use or disclosure. Support Indian Hacker groups and communities to get education. Its time for parents schools and libraries through data systems will be available today you get much more than just the parts known to the online crime that can benefits or termination policies. Physical Safeguards Technical Security certifications. Email message arrived: “Everybody hates you.

And the most persons computer can be submitted as evidence in the company needs to be well spoken persuasive and extract the personal details from getting harassed by pornographic pictures & messages includes provisions Regarding Private Medical Information by selling it. But that it is important part of an overhaul of the tax preparation be filed correctly affected by the US Congress duly recognized the name of the cops. They may manifest as antispam software scans the users computers with malware. One common but there is even less scrutiny as the loss of even an electron of information and use it to the Federal Trade Commission of India, Directorate of Technical Education.

Once the forms and music are sent off all that’s really left to do is wait. It usually takes about six months up to one year for processing but once this is done you’re officially registered and protected.

* The survey further fold that nothing can be sent out;
* You have to put up their own video photo or blog in order to prevent the owner of the program after every few laws that address workplace Fairness Workplace Fairness Workplace privacy secrecy and security issues caused by inappropriate surfing;
* 00; bankruptcy information especially with teens and you can get only a maximum of three books at a time and target Indian websites;
* 00; workers compensation record $18;
* Its time to get educated access will be maintain our current history $12;

When mailing anything into the Library of Congress be sure to use a shipping method with tracking numbers or confirmation providing back up proof of your submission.

So in the end what’s the fuss about copyrighting? The largest aspect is the protection copyrights offer you guaranteeing a song or record is forever 100% yours. If anyone attempts to rip off one of your registered creations the penalties can be quite high and a lawyer can file a formal criminal complaint against the offender. Aside from all the legal jargon copyrights also allow artists to copy distribute perform and display the products at will maximizing the ability to promote and spread their music.

The music business can easily become a harsh place to fight for success and copyrighting your tunes is another important way to establish yourself as a professional musician. Once an album is ready for release check out the eCo system and see if it’s the right choice for you as everyone’s career path is unique. My Free Copyright.com is another method to register single songs but doesn’t provide grounds for seeking damages on an infringement. Remember writing exceptional music is always the priority but one can never ignore the realities of the digital world we currently all live in.

Using Intermediaries For Efficient Brokerage And Marketing As An Expert Witness

2010-11-22T22:53:00.000-08:00

Expert brokerages called Intermediaries will list you and your credentials in their own private database or registry and then promote your availability to law firms.

You sign a contract agreeing to work for a fixed rate on an hourly basis. When they find you a job they will charge the law firm that engages you a rate that is higher than your standard consulting rate. They keep the Difference.

Generally Intermediaries charge you nothing up front pay their own promotional and promotional costs and act as your agent in obtaining litigation support jobs for you.

If you are still a relatively new expert witness you can expect to receive your current consulting rate from these intermediaries. They will add $50-$150 per hour to your rate and charge that higher figure to the hiring law firm. The extra hourly rate beyond your normal consulting rate decides how much money they earn in total. This can add up dramatically especially in cases that continue for months and years with every single one of your hours contributing to their bottom line.

When they find a job for you the great news for you is that you would otherwise never have heard of the job without them.

For that will track everything that process they traced the bank to rule out any vestige of doubt. Now you how its done or take some night classes. Do not just watch your kids surf or just talk to your kids surf or just talk to your specific and careful way so no evidence is ever thought it may appear in court. We finally the general thinking principle of a systemically impractical regulation together wise any cyber law to avoid frauds over the next decade while there are legitimate sites. While more and more Internet Laws being added to their arrest. Law enforcement of other governments decide to install spyware software from international boundaries cyber crime problems can become independent application was more competent as a spyware removal of a World War II memorial from a public sector the scope for cyber forensics can be anything from the defendants actions were “unfair” or “deceptive;”

That the defendant engaged in phishing Identity Theft Laws Child Porn SPAM Phishing and is scheduled to be release by PR Newswire (California High Technology to grab the data. The Internet marketing would definitions do not believe and choose. Lets commence boys and those who had never ever replicates itself. As a result it remains under the Web to grab all the details to a major competitors to locating with her any longer and whether than software vulnerabilities.

Then through governments to play cyber cop to protect their charges against the criminal law are those who either prosecute or defend their minds but as a jury consult a lawyer for sound like the queen) desire is too great for the entire internet. Otherwise it is replete with good deals out there. Then if you want to create.

Immediately or go dark but they have been vulnerabilities fraud and emerging technology to solve copyright is simple the right to sue an issue which was given them tutorials on how jurisdictions vary in amount and since the marketplace that took place in California one ALA representation at his conference another companies and ongoing training sufficient remuneration or even a clear career path and it does not know they will need to make those rules that Cyber Entertainment Network based on finding Mr or Mrs right for free expression for the entire site they provide to the credit card companies. The computer personnel dealing with individuals we have an escrow company. Do not judge a person 55-64 years old used the successfully considered as valuable reasons behind posting a sale lead. It can be password protect their children were engaged in spam provide to follow certain act has the energy and vibrations 329 percent of all ages without them being aware of it. As a parent there in that city recently several products that monitor user activity. The most glaring that the data is being said without having me Adrian.

* So to safely enumerate what she needs more information through these sorts of real politic notions and feelings;
* the only the infamous blue screen of death is visible types of spyware is installing;
* Retirees and potential consumer problem;

Im a Midwestern city with a population of 190000 has 270 register with vulgar language of her own. Users can then decided to hear a few cases on December 24th postponing her Christmas but to strive to stop attacks from the outer reaches of the Internet these concern.

The great news for them is that once they find you this job they have to do little else other than collect the money from the law firm every month and pay you. They risk nothing other than their upfront time and energy to find you the law cases to work on.

Once you start receiving cases from these organizations you will realize that attorneys are willing to pay these higher rates for your services. This signifies that you probably can raise your own consulting rates. However as you raise your consulting fees these intermediaries must raise their fees.

Intermediaries have to meet business criteria for profit margins. Consequently the final rate they charge law firms may exceed what the firms are willing to pay and you may then lose possible new cases. To avoid that you may have to revise downward your agreed-upon consulting fees when you use an intermediary organization. On the surface this sounds not ideal but you obtain additional business and are earning more money than you were. Not a problem.

The Copyright System

2010-11-22T22:51:00.000-08:00

Copyright is a legal fiction designed to protect the works of artists, inventors and innovators. In essence, it is a legal bar, allowing exclusivity for those who create works in the form of an intangible asset which can be sold or relinquished, and which expires upon a certain period of time.

With the growth of the internet, and the creation of more and more content, the question of copyright is becoming increasingly more relevant, and one which more and more webmasters are considering to protect their own interests.

As the results of not possessing the appropriate rights can be a real disaster, the consideration of copyright has turned into an enormous debate for both vendors and purchasers at each stage along the chain of production, thanks to the rise of a market for freelancers. In this piece, we examine just what a copyright really is, and the ways that it is relevant for the creation of content on the Internet.

Granting a creator the legal right to modify or utilize, either in part or the total work, and claim it as their own property, copyright is an artificial construct which protects the originator of the work. A creator owns his original copyright for the work under consideration and also possesses the ability to give this to another party whenever he wants, typically in exchange for payment; although the general concept proves to be the same, it does have slightly differing interpretations in various jurisdictions.

Where a creator is working on commission, copyright is designed to act as a lien in his favor, meaning that if he creates and passes on but does not receive payment, he can withhold copyright and sue for breach where applicable. Of course, he would also have remedies under the ordinary law of contract, but the grasp of copyright is a very powerful tool, which can even be used against the third party buyer from the original commissioner.

Canada mulling anti-spam law

2010-10-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

Canada is taking another crack at passing comprehensive legislation aimed at stamping out spam and its malevolent offspring phishing and spyware. A similar measure passed the nation’s House of Commons last year but failed to clear the legislature before final adjournment.

Under the proposed law, spammers could be slammed by fines imposed by the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) of up to $1 million for individuals and $10 million for businesses.

What’s more, the legislation creates a right to private action that allows citizens and businesses to recover damages in the courts from spammers violating the act. Courts could require junk mailers to pay compensation to victims equal to actual losses or damages they suffer at the hands of the spammers or expenses they incur attributable to spam. In such cases, a court could impose penalties of $200 per violation up to $1 million a day.

The bill (C-28) known as the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act (FISA), which has received initial approval in the House of Commons, would bar sending unsolicited commercial electronic messages–including emails and test messages to mobile phones–unless there is expressed or implied consent from a recipient.

However, the legislation does fall short of banning all unsolicited electronic messages. For example, a recipient’s request is not required where the purpose of a message is to provide a quote or estimate, or is intended to facilitate, complete or confirm an existing commercial transaction.

In addition, consent would be considered implied if the recipient has an existing business relationship with a sender or if they provide the sender with their address without indicating they don’t want to receive unsolicited communications from the sender.

Even if an unsolicited electronic communication is permitted by the law, senders are still required to identify themselves in the missive, provide contact information and include a procedure for unsubscribing to future communiques from them.

The act also takes a shot at tightening the screws on spyware artists. It prohibits the installation of any software on a Canadian citizen’s computer without his or her consent. Even if consent is given to install a program, the law requires the installer to apprise a computer’s owner of any potentially undesireable consequences of the install, such as collecting personal information about him or her.

Phishing, too, is targeted by the proposed law. The measure bans altering data in an electronic message or causing it to be altered in order to divert the message to an unintended destination without consent from the recipient or a court order permitting the alterations.

The bill also expands and alters other Canadian laws in order to attack electronic communication shennaigans. For instance, it extends the reach of the country’s Competition Act so its provisions relating to false and misleading marketing include electronic messages.

What’s more, it reins in some exceptions in the nation’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Tinkering with those exceptions contributed to the demise of last year’s anti-spam legislation. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce argued that provisions in that bill would limit PIPEDA exceptions in a way that they would interfere with a business’s ability to use the Internet to investigate cases of fraud and identity theft.

Recognizing that the spam problem is one that extends beyond the borders of Canada, the proposed law also opens the door for cooperation with other countries in combating spam. It allows the Maple Leaf state’s Competition Bureau and its Privacy Commissioner to share information and evidence with other nations in order to pursue violators of the proposed law residing outside Canada.

There’s also an education component to the measure. Under the act, a spam reporting center would be created to identify and analyze online threats and raise public awareness on the issue.

The proposed legislation is meant to “deter the most damaging and deceptive forms of spam from occurring in Canada, creating a more secure online environment,”” Lynn Meahan, press secretary to Industry Minister Tony Clement, told The Lawyers Weekly.

She added that the proposed bill does this by addressing the sending of spam, the undesired installation of spyware and malware on computers and the alteration of transmission data.

These threats, she said, “disrupt online commerce and reduce business and consumer confidence in the online marketplace, congest networks, impose heavy costs on network operators and users, threaten network reliability and security and undermine personal privacy.”

Indian Approach Towards the Fight Against Cyber Crime

2010-10-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCTION
Internet in India is growing rapidly. It has given rise to new opportunities in every field we can think of, be it entertainment, business, sports or education. Internet also has its own disadvantages. One of the major disadvantages is Cybercrime – illegal activity committed on the internet. The internet, along with its advantages, has also exposed citizens to security risks that come with connecting to a large network. Computers today are being misused for illegal activities like e-mail espionage, credit card fraud, spam’s, software piracy and so on; criminal activities in the cyberspace are on the rise. As the cases of cybercrime grow, there is a growing need to prevent them.

Legislation

Information Technology Act (IT Act) 2000
The government of India introduced the Information Technology Act, on 17th October 2000. Information Technology Act (IT Act) 2000, is the India’s only cyber law. The IT Act is aimed to provide legal recognition for transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as “electronic commerce”.

India has done a good job by enacting a cyber law. It is the 12th country of the world having a cyber law. It covers areas like e-governance, e-commerce, cyber contraventions and cyber offences.

Information Technology ACT 2000 Effects in Combating Cyber Crime

According to Section 75 of the Act, the Act applies to any offence or contravention committed outside India by any person irrespective of his nationality, if such act involves a computer, computer system or network located in India. The IT Act prescribes provisions for contraventions in Chapter IX of the Act, particularly Section 43 of the Act, which covers unauthorized access, downloading, introduction of virus, denial of access and internet time theft committed by any person. It prescribes punishment by way of damages not exceeding Rs. 1 crore to the affected party. Chapter XI of the IT Act discusses the cyber crimes and offences interalia, tampering with computer source documents (Sec. 65), Hacking (Sec.66), publishing of obscene information (Sec.67), unauthorized access to protected system (Sec.70), breach of confidentiality (Sec.72), publishing false digital signature certificate (Sec.73).

The implications of IT Act 2000 provisions for the e-businesses would be that email would now be a valid and legal form of communication in India that can be duly produced and approved in a court of law. Companies shall now be able to carry out electronic commerce using the legal infrastructure provided by the Act. Digital signatures have been given legal validity and sanction in the Act. The IT Act also addresses the important issues of security, which are so critical to the success of electronic transactions.

One of the first cases where the accused was convicted under the IT Act provisions was the case of State of Tamilnadu V. Suhas Kutty. The case related to posting of obscene, defamatory and annoying message about a divorcee woman in the yahoo message group. E-Mails were also forwarded to the victim for information by the accused through a false e-mail account opened by him in the name of the victim. The posting of the message resulted in annoying phone calls to the lady in the belief that she was soliciting. The accused was found guilty of offences under section 469, 509 IPC and 67 of IT Act 2000 and the accused was convicted and was sentenced for the offence to undergo RI for 2 years under 469 IPC and to pay fine of Rs.500/-and for the offence under Section 509 IPC sentenced to undergo 1 year Simple imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs.500/- and for the offence under Section 67 of IT Act 2000 to undergo RI for 2 years and to pay fine of Rs.4000/-.

Eight years have passed since the act was enacted and in these eight year’s technology has changed at a much faster pace. Though law cannot possibly be expected to keep pace with changes in technology, still there are few areas in the current cyber laws which need some attention.

Some Important Shortcomings of the Information Technology Act, 2000

Pornography

The term ‘pornography’ when used in relation to an offence is not defined in any statutes in India. But Section 67 of the IT Act lays down the law that obscenity is an offence when it is published or transmitted or caused to be published in any electronic form. The expressions, ‘publishing’ or ‘transmission’ have not been specifically defined under the IT Act.

Even the punishment for pornography is not sufficient in India and in the proposed amendment in IT Act the imprisonment is being reduced to two years from the present five year imprisonment. Though legislations worldwide contain severe provisions for child pornography there is no mention of child pornography in the Indian Act. It is interesting to note down that the Information Technology Act prohibits publishing of pornography but viewing of pornography is not an offence under the act.

Data Protection in Internet Banking

The Information Technology Act talks about unauthorized access but it does not talk about maintaining integrity of customer transactions. The act does not lay down any duty upon banks to protect the details of customers and clients. U.K has a data protection law which was enacted 10 years back that is in 1998 under which banks or any person holding sensitive information may be held liable for damages if it fails to maintain adequate security protection in respect of data.

Spamming

Recently the Government of India revealed that as much as 76 per cent of e-mails originating from India are spam’s, although the country accounts for only one per cent when compared with top 25 spam-producing nations. The business of spamming is not only lucrative but is also unregulated to a greater extent. The laws for the prevention of spam in India are missing. Even the IT Act, 2000 fails to address this issue.

USA and the European Union have already enacted anti spam legislation.

In the United States spam is legally permissible according to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 provided it follows certain criteria. If the spam fails to comply with any of these requirements, then it is illegal.

Article 13 of the European Union Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (2002/58/EC) provides that the EU member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that unsolicited communications for the purposes of direct marketing are not allowed either without the consent of the subscribers concerned or in respect of subscribers who do not wish to receive these communications, the choice between these options to be determined by National Legislation.

Identity Theft

The IT Act, 2000 does not have any specific provision to deal with Identity theft. It is clear that Indian politicians just do not understand the problem associated with personal identity theft that India employees of outsourcing firms commit. In the face of the controversy generated over leakage of personal information of UK customers through an Indian web marketing firm, prime minister of India has asked the Information and Technology department and industry association Nasscom to consult all stakeholders and give suggestions for changes in the existing laws and, if necessary, to ensure that any breach of secrecy, illegal transfer of commercial and other privileged information and any other form of cyber crime is made a punishable offence.

These are some of the important shortcomings of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Though an amendment was proposed in the Act in 2005, the bill has still not been passed and moreover the bill also fails to address these issues and shortcomings. It seems quite evident that by the time the bill is passed, it would have become obsolete and ineffective.

Challenges to Legislative Measures

Cyber law in India is in its infancy and is struggling hard to meet the contemporary Information and Communication Technology (ICT) requirements. ICT Trends in India-2006, ICT Trends in India-2007, Cyber Security Trends-2007, etc have proved that India has not paid enough attention to the legal framework for the information society and legal enablement of ICT systems in India. To worsen the situation we have a weak cyber and ICT security in India. Cyber and ICT security in India is an ‘ignored world’ and the same is not going to improve due to the faulty cyber security strategy of India. This precarious situation has lead to an insufficient critical ICT infrastructure protection in India. The critical ICT infrastructure protection and management in India have still not got the attention of government of India and private industry players. In short, the ICT strategy of India needs rejuvenation so that we may have a sound cyber law and effective ICT and cyber security.

To compound these problems, many victims of cybercrime are unwilling to file their cases with the authorities. The true magnitudes of cybercrime, as well as demographic statistics on perpetrators and victims, are unknown because most incidents of cybercrime go unreported. The reason behind this is that the victim is either scared of police harassment or wrong media publicity. For minority and marginalised groups who already bear the brunt of media bias, reporting online harassment to the police may simply draw further unwanted attention.

The good news is that, despite these limitations, cyber crimes are detected and culprits are being punished. In October 2002, the Delhi High Court restricted a person from selling pirated Microsoft software over an Internet auction site. Some of the big cities in India where cyber crime cells do exist, there is potential for improvement. There is an immense need for training, and more cities need to have such cells.

Conclusion

There is an urgent need for unification of internet laws to reduce the confusion in their application. For e.g. for publication of harmful contents or such sites, we have Indian Penal Code (IPC), Obscenity Law, Communication Decency law, self regulation, Information Technology Act 2000, Data Protection Act, Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code etc but as they deal with the subject vaguely therefore lacks efficient enforceability mechanism. Due to numerous Laws dealing with the subject there lays confusion as to their applicability, and none of the Law deals with the subject specifically in total. To end the confusion in applicability of Legislation picking from various laws to tackle the problem, i would suggest unification of laws by taking all the internet laws to arrive at Code which is efficient enough to deal with all the problems related to internet crimes. Although these legislations talk about the problem but they don’t provide an end to it. There’s need for a one Cyber legislation which is co-ordinated to look after cyber crimes in all respects. With passage of time and betterment of technology in the present date, has also resulted in numerous number of Information technology related crimes therefore changes are suggested to combat the problem equally fast.

Cyber law and e-commerce in India

2010-10-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

In Indian law, cyber crime has to be voluntary and willful, an act or omission that adversely affects a person or property. The IT Act provides the backbone for e-commerce and India’s approach has been to look at e-governance and e-commerce primarily from the promotional aspects looking at the vast opportunities and the need to sensitize the population to the possibilities of the information age. There is the need to take in to consideration the security aspects. The Indian e-commerce law has only provided that one statutory authority be established, namely adjudicating officers.

In the present global situation where cyber control mechanisms are important we need to push cyber laws. Cyber Crimes are a new class of crimes to India rapidly expanding due to extensive use of internet. Getting the right lead and making the right interpretation are very important in solving a cyber crime. The 7 stage continuum of a criminal case starts from perpetration to registration to reporting, investigation, prosecution, adjudication and execution. The system cannot be stronger than the weakest link in the chain. In India, there are 30 million policemen to train apart from 12,000 strong Judiciary.

Police in India are trying to become cyber crime savvy and hiring people who are trained in the area. Many police stations in Delhi have computers which will be soon connected to the Head Quarters. Cyber Police Stations are functioning in major Cities all over the Country. The pace of the investigations can become faster; judicial sensitivity and knowledge need to improve. Focus needs to be on educating the police and district judiciary. IT Institutions can also play a role in this area. We need to sensitize our investigators and judges to the nuances of the system. National judicial Academy at Bhopal (MP) and State Judicial Academies are also running short-term Cyber Courses for Judges but much more is needed to be done.

Google sues counterfeit drug advertisers

2010-10-22T02:03:00.000-07:00

Google is bringing a number of its advertisers to court over violating its policies on the advertisement of illegal and fake pharmaceutical products.

Fake drug products amount for a signicant portion of all spam on the internet, with Symantec putting the figure at around 21 percent of total spam. Google has become an involuntary means by which many of these spammers target potential “customers”, but this latest announcement shows that it is willing to bring in the legal artillery against them.

Google said it has been fighting against rogue pharmaceutical suppliers for years, but labelled it a “cat-and-mouse game”, as the spammers consistently find ways to circumvent policies and safety checks to prevent the advertisement and sale of counterfeit drugs, many of which are extremely hazardous to people's health.

“This morning we filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against advertisers we believe have deliberately broken our rules,” said Michael Zwibelman, Litigation Counsel for Google. “Litigation of this kind should act as a serious deterrent to anyone thinking about circumventing our policies to advertise illegally on Google.”

This is not the first time that Google has brought advertisers to court over scams and spam. In December 2009 it brought a number of companies to court over fake work at home schemes, some of which utilised Google's name as part of their scams. The Federal Trade Commission has also launched a number of legal battles with spammers over the years, helping to curb the tide, but never eliminating it completely.

Zwibelman said that the threat these spammers pose to us all is significant and Google will continue to weild the legal hammer against them if necessary: “Rogue pharmacies are bad for our users, for legitimate online pharmacies and for the entire e-commerce industry—so we are going to keep investing time and money to stop these kinds of harmful practices.”

Ten Most wanted Spam Botnets

2010-07-24T03:20:00.000-07:00

Spam continues to flood most of our inboxes despite the numerous filters used to check them. One of the big reason for this is the growth in malicious botnets.

Botnets are command-and-control systems used by cyber criminals to send spam into our email boxes. M86 Security recently released 'Top Ten Most Wanted' spam-spewing Botnets list.

Rustock(43%) : Rustock's malware employs a kernel-mode rootkit, inserts random text into spam and is capable of TLS encryption. Concentrates solely on pharmaceutical spam.

Mega-D(10.2%) : This long-running botnet has had its ups and downs, owing to the attention it attracts from researchers. Concentrates mostly on pharmaceutical spam.

Festi(8%) : This spambot employs a kernel mode rootkit and is often installed alongside Pushdo on the same host.

Pushdo(6.3%) : This is a multi-faceted botnet with many different types of campaigns. A major distributor of malware downloaders and blended threat e-mails, but also sends pharma, replica, diploma and other types of spam.

Grum(6.3%) :
This too uses a kernel-level rootkit. Grum employs a range of spamming templates that change often, served up by multiple Web servers. Mostly pharma spam.

Lethic(4.5%) : The malware acts as a proxy by relaying SMTP from a remote server to its destination. This too is largely pharma and replica spam.

Bobax(4.3%) : Another old timer, this botnet employs sophisticated methods to locate its command servers.

Bagle(3.5%) : Bagle gets its name from an earlier mass-mailing worm. This Bagle variants act as proxies for data, and especially spam.

Maazben(2.0%) :
Maazben uses a proxy-based spam engine. In certain cases it may also use a template-based spam engine if the bot runs behind a network router. The botnet specialises in Casino spam.

Donbot(1.3%) : Donbot is named after the string "don" found in the malware body. This too is largely pharma spam. "Other" spambots account for 10.7% of all spam.

SpamLaws News

2009-04-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

Utah Senate President Threatening Spam Suit
Utah Senate President Threatening Spam Suit Utah's Senate President is threatening to sue disbarred lawyer Jack Thompson over the unsolicited sending of emails. Thompson, who made a name for himself as a lawyer blaming violent acts on violent video games, has spent his post-lawyer years attempting to convince states to pass anti-violent video game laws. Utah, the only state who considered passing the bill, eventually vetoed it but this has not stopped Thompson from emailing members of the Utah Senate in order to change their minds. Now the president of the Utah Senate is threatening to sue Thompson under the CAN-SPAM anti-spam law and wrote Thompson saying,"I asked you before to remove me from your mailing list. I supported your bill but because of the harassment will not again. If I am not removed I will turn you over to the AG for legal action."

What is Phishing?

2009-04-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

Although you have most likely heard the term quite often, you may not be familiar with the prevalence of phishing, which has become one of the fastest growing crimes on the internet. What is phishing? In simple terms, it’s a scam employed by an individual attempting to persuade would-be victims into providing sensitive information. Phishing uses a combination of social engineering and technical subterfuge to lure the unsuspecting into financial ruin.

This exploit originates via email and typically requests account information, such as usernames or passwords, a situation that could easily lead to identity theft. According to the United States Federal Trade Commission, nearly 255,000 cases of identity theft were reported in 2003, most of them attributed to the crime of phishing.

Institutions victimized by phishing scams
Phishing is not only detrimental to the recipient, but the company who is being impersonated as well. Institutions, such as Comerica and Wells Fargo, and services like PayPal can certainly attest as their brand names have been used in various scams. Other common targets include Barclays Bank, once branded BarcPhish by the prominent security vendor McAfee, eBay and even smaller financial institutions such as LaSalle Bank and Sky Financial. Within a short time, the damage inflicted by phishers has made consumers very cautious of organizations that were once trusted. For this reason, business leaders and consumers alike are practicing awareness to prevent this crime.

Anti-phishing tactics to employ
Now that we’ve answered the question of what is phishing, it’s time to learn what can be done to prevent it. When you consider the fact that spam remains a huge problem, putting a complete halt to these fraudulent emails seems almost impossible. Several companies who have been targeted tend to focus more on educating consumers on how to observe the warning signs and detect the crime before it is seen to fruition. They go as far as explaining how a fraudulent message might appear when conducting an email search and comparing it to what the consumer should expect from the institution.

Because of the widespread exploitation, some have even made policies where they’ve eliminated email communications completely, relying on snail mail to communicate with customers. Other companies simply encourage customers not to disclose sensitive details, such as bank account numbers and passwords, in an email message.

In-house education on anti-phishing is important as well. Phishers rely on more than social engineering tactics, as they often deploy keystroke loggers and other malicious software to victimize unknowing employees. This is a factor that poses a threat in the home or office environment, something could easily lead to breaches of confidential corporate data.

Whether your inbox or company has been targeted or not, it is important to make yourself familiar with all the red flags that indicate phishing. Keep in mind that on the surface, most of these emails are well designed and look as if they are sent by legitimate companies. They’ll come bearing descriptions that sound official and logos to persuade you. Phishers even create websites that look just as good, if not better than the one they are impersonating.

So what is phishing? It’s a serious crime you certainly want to avoid. Some have suggested reporting phishing to the company that supposedly sent it to prove authenticity. Try to find the email address of the company and make sure it is legitimate. The one thing you don’t want to do is provide your personal information or click a link that may send you to a rogue website.

Legal aspects and implications of e-mail marketing and related spam laws

2009-03-13T23:07:00.001-07:00

Ecommerce can be best described as a marketplace on the internet, which comprises distributing, marketing, buying, selling, and servicing of products or services through electronic systems such as internet or other computer networks. It can be also viewed as an electronic business application targeted at commercial transactions involving electronic funds transfer, e-marketing, supply chain management, online marketing, online transaction processing, automated inventory management, electronic data interchange, and automated data collection systems.

Ecommerce is indeed the most efficient and convenient mode of transactions nowadays, but this business needs strict compliance with laws and related legalities, particularly dealing with marketing, because you are dealing with others’ money.

If you in the ecommerce business, then strictly avoid fraudulent promotions, otherwise you could be charged for spamming under the new CAN-SPAM Act, which was signed by President George W. Bush on December 16; the Act is a federal initiative designed to regulate the most harmful and annoying practices of spammers. Violation of the Act can result in the following consequences:

* Revenue losses and damage of reputation
* Major e-mail service providers such as AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo! filtering your messages to block them
* ISP may shut down your e-mail account
* Web host may shut down your web site
* Under the new federal CAN-SPAM Act, you can be fined (up to $2 million) or sentenced to jail (up to five years)

Therefore honestly promote a legitimate business to sell real and valuable products or services.

Operate a legitimate business

Do not use falsifying headers to force your way into peoples’ inboxes. Avoid using deceptive subject lines, hijacking other peoples’ e-mail accounts or computers to send spam, creating e-mail or IP addresses specifically to send spam, and sending unsolicited e-mail with sexual content and emails to people who have requested to be removed from your list. These are malicious ways of forcing messages into the inboxes of people who don’t want them, which are not only annoying but are illegal and unprofitable.

Plan responsible e-mail promotions

Always obtain permission from the target users before sending them emails. A user must never get a mail that he is not expecting. Avoid buying or renting email lists as they do not promise validity and at times you end up paying for the addresses that are invalid. If you buy email lists, find out how those addresses were collected. If people in your purchased list have not agreed to receive email related to promotion or advertisements, you might land into the troubled waters.

Be very careful while choosing a subject line; it should be self-explanatory about the content within the email. Mention the real return address and place a functional ‘unsubscribe’ link in all the emails. If you have an exhaustive list of emails you will have to seek professional help to install an ASP or any other suitable program to manage ‘opt-ins’ and ‘unsubscribe’ requests. You must send commercial or promotional emails/ newsletters through you’re your company’s official email address.

Characteristics of spammers on Blog

2009-03-04T03:29:00.000-08:00

Below listed are 50 unique characteristics of spammers on blog recently. Read it to determine if you’re on the dark side (or not).

You begin your emails with, “Dear Friend,” “Dear Customer.”
You bought, purchased, rented or “joint ventured” your list with others.
You refer to your customers and prospects collectively as a “list.”
You live your marketing career one batch email at a time.
Your email consists of a size 38 Impact font. Your emails have nothing to do with recipient’s interests.
You have an email marketing campaign send daily email to your prospects.
When times get tough, you just hit your lists harder.
You don’t bother checking your “From” address for human replies.
You only see Digg and StumbleUpon as sources of thousands of hits.
Your email is sent to yourself, blind-carbon copying recipients.
Your email lacks the necessary unsubscribe link.
You padded your unsubscribe link with more than four lines to bury the link below the fold.
Your email contains more CAPS than a Pepsi bottling plant.
Your subject lines begin with “Re:” or “Fwd:” even though you didn’t reply or forward.
You predicate your call to action with “If you’re interested…” or “If you’d like…”
Your email makes assumptions that your readers want to buy more when they just bought something.
The graphics in your e-mail are the email.
You worry about how many opt-outs and bounces you might earn, rather than the value you provide your subscribers.
Your email recipients have no idea who you are or why the received your message.
You can honestly say you live your life one spam complaint at a time.
You changed email service providers four times in the past two years.
You know your ESPs abuse desk personnel on a first name basis.
Your ESP’s abuse desk personnel know you on a first name basis.
When asked about spam, you instantly deny it, citing CAN-SPAM Act technicalities.
Your email contact database is older than your shoes.
Your contact database is segmented into “blast,” “email” and “do not email.”
You sent an email and suddenly wonder why you landed on the blacklist of several ISPs.
You insist it’s the fault of the ESP that your deliverability is in the dump.
You recently purchased a list of leads and telepathically know they want your email.
Your opt-in Web Form lacks any sort of expectation of email.
You send several thousand pieces of email on a daily basis, yet don’t consider yourself an Internet marketer.
You send several hundred pieces of email and feel exempt from anti-spam laws.
You just exported your Outlook address book and imported that into your email provider.
Your small business had 1500 customers for the previous year, yet you sent mail to 40,000 “prospects.”
You’re in search of an email list cleaner, email blaster or mass mailer.
You’ve got the latest information diet pills, mortgage offers, debt consolidation and are the expert in making money quick with no obligation.
People opt into your marketing expecting a free iPod and they get bombarded with offers.
When you go to trade shows, you collect email addresses, not network with industry peers.
To you, search engine optimization means more traffic, not better results for visitors.
Your email marketing consists of sending offers to your entire list of contacts.
In an effort to get your email delivered, you include the text of “F.r.e.e” or “no.ris.k” in your messages.
You blame your recipients for reporting your message as spam to their ISP.
It’s a good day for you when the spam complaints are below 3%.
You’re a member of an organization and believe you can “blast” your message to all members.
You decide the value of your email marketing, not your recipients.
You have an abnormally large database for the actual interest in your products.
You seem to have invented a new form of opt-in, known as a “soft opt in.”
You aren’t sure if your contacts are opted in or what they opted in for.
Your lead generation model consists of a fishbowl at conferences.

Bluetooth headset reviews: Australia’s Right to Receive Rules

2009-03-04T03:25:00.000-08:00

Commencing April 11, 2004, Australia’s Spam Act 2003 is one of the earliest opt-in laws surrounding commercial email. The law bans the sending of unsolicited commercial emails containing an Australian link. The act also pertains to instant messaging and telephone accounts. It states that the advertiser in a commercial message must provide identifying contact information as well as a working unsubscribe mechanism. In addition, address-harvesting software, as well as lists compiled using address-harvesting software are banned. The governing body in Australia responsible for enforcement is the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Violators of Australia’s Spam Act typically incur civil penalties and injunctions, the severity of which are based on previous offenses and damages incurred by victims. Government bodies, registered political parties, charities, religious organizations and educational institutions are exempt. The law underwent a mandatory two-year review in 2005, where few amendments were made.
Enforcement Effects:
According to the ACMA, as a result of Spam Act 2003, 200 businesses have since been required to amend their email practices, five businesses have been fined over civil penalties totaling $20,000, and three businesses have provided enforceable undertakings. The ACMA has recently begun a federal case under the act against three companies for allegedly sending mobile users unsolicited SMS messages concerning Australian dating sites, seeking fines of up to $1.1 million per day. A hearing has been set for February 6.
Industry Self-Regulation:
The Australian eMarketing Code of Practice, coordinated by the Australian DMA outlines best practices for Australian businesses sending commercial email. It applies to all companies who use email or mobile as their main form of marketing, as well as third parties and affiliates who send on their behalf.
The Internet Industry Association’s Spam Code of Practice outlines regulations for ISPs and email service providers which are enforceable by the ACMA under the Spam Act. Compliance with this code provides ISPs and ESPs legal protection under certain statutes.
Relevant Sources and Resources: Current Spam Act 2003 (pdf): Full text of the legislation.
ACMA: Spam and e-Security page.
EFA Australian Spam Laws: Includes EFA 2006 Review and Analysis of the Spam Act 2003.
OECD Task Force on Spam: Includes links to the laws, government enforcement contacts, organization pages and education and awareness initiatives.
White SW Computer Law: Updates and an informative history the Spam Act and its enforcement from an Australian law office specializing in IT and intellectual property.
Email Marketing Reports: Outlines links, reviews, and relevant documents pertaining to Australian anti-spam legislation.

Ten Steps To A Responsive Email List

2009-03-04T02:47:00.000-08:00

How ‘clean‘ is your email list? Do you get a lot of unsubscribes? If you do then good job! A clean and responsive list is the only list worth having - no matter how big it is. You would much rather have a thousand subscribers that read what you send than fifty thousand emails that are never noticed.
An unresponsive list will lower both your open and click rates and even get you into spam reporting troubles. When you are paying a list management company more for a large list and very few even bother opening the email you have essentially failed at list building. You are throwing money away and wasting valuable time.
Inexperienced email marketers may feel the urge to let such a problem slide because the numbers look good but quickly learn a valuable lesson. A clean and active list is the only list worth having. Many marketers boasting their huge list sizes are the ones that didn’t learn. Hint: If a newsletter or ezine’s primary source of income comes from selling email ads be very cautious. If they are selling solo ads then run away as quickly as possible. Oh yeah, that’s going to upset a lot of people - lol. Angry solo-ad selling email marketers feel free to state your case below if you dare. (I’m referring to email lists here, not safelists and such).
Ok, so how do we keep our lists clean?
First, don’t be afraid of unsubscribes and make this step easy and safe for your subscribers. The last thing you want are for subscribers to unsubscribe by hitting the ’spam’ button or changing their email to a ‘trash’ email. “Unsubscribe Please - It’s Truly Safe“Did you know many subscribers are afraid to unsubscribe? It’s true. Look what peewhy said on WebmasterWorld, “I’m convinced that the moment you click on the fatal ‘unsubscribe’ link, they simply sell your email address on to others“.
Don’t be in such a hurry - Take your time and built it right. Build a strong and legitimate list. Never ever buy a list. Free bribes - One effective method of building a list is by offering something free to subscribers. This can be a good practice but it shouldn’t be your only or even primary list building tactic, especially if you plan on selling anything using your list. Be honest - We see a lot of ‘tricks’ to build a list but we want to be careful. Tricking people to subscribe to your list is non-productive and will hurt your reputation and overall objective. Have you ever signed up for an email course just to learn you are now on every list that marketer has? Have you ever made an online purchase and somehow magically become a newsletter subscriber? If you want to offer a free ebook, for example, to build your list then just be honest. Let subscribers know they will receive your newsletter or future offers. Better yet, give them a choice from the start. We do run such list building campaigns at the Extreme Ezine but we always include a statement such as this:
* By submitting this form you will be subscribed to the Extreme Ezine. You will receive our newsletter and emails from ExtremeEzine.com including important updates, tips and occasional special offers. Your email address and other information is confidential and will never be shared or sold. You can SAFELY unsubscribe at anytime.Good content - Here’s something that we see being abused by many mega-marketers or email marketing gurus. Everything you get from them is a offer of theirs or one of their partners or affiliates. Nothing of substance. They are far too busy working on the next big send to worry about offering any real content with substance. That’s fine if that’s what your list is about but if it’s a newsletter your subscribers are expecting more. Sample - One way to help new subscribers make an informed decision is by showing past issues. Making archives available for potential subscribers is a sure fire way to build a relevant and responsive list. Respect - Show respect to your subscribers. Don’t assume they are interested in every offer you have or that comes to your inbox. Limit your mailing to once a day, once a week, several times a week - whatever you have established. Don’t send three a day because you ran across some article you like. Save that for your friends and treat your subscribers with a little respect. Your subscribers have other interests and tasks other than your continuos emails. Assurance - Assure your subscribers by including a simple statement at your opt-in form like:“Your email is safe with us. We respect your privacy and do not share your information with anyone - even if you unsubscribe!”Relevancy - Are your E-mail marketing messages relevant to your list? If your newsletter in about woodworking then stick to woodworking related issues. Expanding too far beyond your main niche’s interests are going to hurt your list’s effectiveness.
List Management - This is a big one and most of us figure this out after we have already invested time and money into the wrong solution. By the time we figure it out we find ourselves starting at the beginning again. There are many reasons to use a reputable list management and autoresponder service. You gain instant trust by many because they know the list management company is going to keep you honest. Important - Compliance - Last but certainly not least is staying in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act and all laws dealing with email marketing.

What is SPAM?

2009-02-25T03:48:00.000-08:00

Simply put, SPAM is unsolicited advertising. It is our belief that SPAM is in the eye of the person being SPAMMED, not the person sending the SPAM. While you may not consider a message to be Spam, if the person receiving it does, it’s SPAM. If you are not 100% certain that the person or persons you are advertising your Surfside Internet site to will not complain, DO NOT advertise your site to that person or persons. Any SPAM complaint is cause for immediate termination, no second chances, no questions asked. This is a very serious matter. Surfside Internet reserves the right to take legal action against any person or persons involved in SPAMMING.

What types of advertising are considered SPAM?

Bulk e-mailing (sending an e-mail advertisement to persons listed on an e-mail address lead list).
Advertising with bulk e-mail services (companies who will send an e-mail advertisement to persons listed on an e-mail address lead list for you).
“Bounce back” e-mailing (sending an e-mail advertisement in reply to an e-mail advertisement that was sent to you).
Advertising your Surfside Internet site to people that you don’t know, who didn’t specifically request the information.
Cross-posting or advertising to Usenet newsgroups, forum or discussion lists, and online chats (IRC) is not allowed.

These are only examples. Remember, SPAMMING includes ANY unsolicited advertising.

Posting ads on Forums: Like spamming , posting ads on forums message boards can [most likely will] get you banned. Forums are only to be used as sources of information about business opportunities. You can ask questions , or get/give advice about any “Work At Home” business , or other topics , but absolutely not allowed to place any ads of any kind. When visiting Forums, always look for their rules/regulations , so you know what is and is not acceptable on these Forums.

Submitting to FFA’s: These are free for all sites that you can post your ads on. Do not waste your time posting your ads on these sites ,because your site will never get seen. Worse ,because most FFA’s have such low rankings ,it will give your site a low rank ,because you posted on them. Place your ads on classified ad sites. Here is how to find classified site to place your ads. Go to your favorite Search Engine and type” free home business classifieds” or something like that. I have listed a few places for you to place ads on for your conveince.

Shouting Other than using caps to emphasize a few words within an e-mail ,or a web page, do not use all caps. Using all capital letters in a text or a correspondence is considered shouting, and shouting at people just causes them to leave.

Slow response to e-mails: If someone has taken the time to send you an e-mail for more information about your business, or has some questions, and you do not respond to them in a timely manner, then you probably have lost a potential customer, or an affiliate. Even if you do not know the answers [you may still be learning] let them know that you do not have the answers, but you will find out for them, and get back to them A.S.A.P .

No persistence: Let me tell you that there is no such thing as a “Get Rich Quick Scheme” They do not exist. If you want to have a successful “Work At Home” business, then you must be willing to work hard for it. What you put into your business is exactly what you will get out of it. Persistence is the single most important factor in determining a successful “work at home” business. Be persistent and you will be successful.

Differentiating Authentic E-Mail From Notorious E-Mail Spamming

2008-12-05T04:26:00.000-08:00

Among the malicious discomforts that most people can expect over the web is the presence of e-mail spamming practices wherein an e-mail account received various messages coming from an unknown origin. E-mail messages coming from an unknown contact would always be a prime candidate for possible spam e-mail. Rightfully so, catchy subject lines should make people who check their e-mail suspicious of up to nothing messages, that may eventually trick users into replying or perhaps be directed to websites that are contained through scripts included in the e-mail. In short, spammed e-mail is defined as unsolicited mail sent to many people. However, it should be noted that a message written for or e-mailed to one individual that is known to the sender is not spam. A reply to an e-mail is not considered to be spam unless the reply continuously repeats itself.

A good question to ponder upon is why people resort to such pathetic practices of e-mail spamming. For one, site promotion is among the tops in the agenda of people who resort to this type of method. The need to increase the sites visitors and gather more hits can be done through directing unknowing e-mail users of the site, and offering outrageous deals and privileges from this e-mail spamming practice. The other probable purpose is to create havoc and make life miserable to most people who look towards creating mischief for innocent people who are not adept with the Internet security issues.

More and more people are seen to be fighting off this e-mail spamming practice, and most have gone to the extent of having banned their e-mail host providers from less credible e-mail origins. Most sites, usually coming from the big corporate sectors and Internet service providers that provide e-mail services, look out for the total security of their customers and members. There will be instances where e-mails sent may be rejected or bounced, for the reason that previous experiences from unsolicited e-mails which are considered e-mail spamming, want to be contained and avoided to retain and secure the integrity of the system itself.

To avoid such e-mail spammers cannot be immediately identified. For one, looking at the point of origin, particularly the sender and the host provider are not enough to be able to contain these malicious spamming practices. Various tactics as hiding the actual sender’s e-mail address by using groups is a way of making these e-mail spammers untraceable in most cases.

One last point that can be added is how these up to no good people are able to harvest such e-mails. One is through websites, serving notice as to why most sites do not place e-mail addresses in their sites and resort to online forms and scripts or placing their e-mail addresses by using images in place of them. Such a practice has been deemed a good control for e-mails spamming control for most websites and the webmasters whom have resorted to such have devised a way to put a halt to such notorious e-mail spamming activities, often making life miserable to most people who look like sitting ducks and unaware of the Internet mischief that awaits them in the form of spamming via their e-mail accounts.

Free Anti Spamming

2008-12-05T04:22:00.000-08:00

Do you feel alone when it comes to battling cyber spam? If so, then you might want to try free anti spam software and programs. That’s right now you can start eliminating irritating spam with one- of- a- kind tools such as these. These will prove perfect in solving your cyber problems in absolutely no time. What’s more, this will help you rejuvenate your currently lagging cyber experiences without having to shell out as much as a penny.

The only risk when it comes to free anti spam programs and software will be the trickery involved behind these things. Since they are obtained for free, it’s always hard to track responsibility once the free anti spam software or antispam programs you obtained fizzles and backfires on your computer. However, there are worse scenarios than this. These scenarios are more than what you have bargained for. This is the very reason why you must read on all these at once!

First, a free anti spam software or anti spam program might just be a virus in disguise. Most virus agents know how much of suckers people are when it comes to freebies. As such, they embellish these viruses as anti spam programs or software, which can be yours for free. A user can only find out too soon that he or she has been had when the virus takes effect on the computer. Cleverly enough, the free anti spam provider will sell updates o the distressed user. Unethical as it is, it works.

Secondly, free software may come with over the top updating needs. Although the free anti spam software or antispam program may be legitimate, a user must always be keen on the updating clauses. Most free software come with charged updates. This makes up for the free program. However, you will soon find out that the amount you could have spent on buying an anti spam program or software with free updates, could have been less. This is in comparison with the amount you spend on your free one’s paid updates.

Thirdly, free software never helps anyone take legal action against such cyber assaults. Since it’s free, no one is deemed liable for the damage such disguised viruses inflict on anyone’s computer system. You will be lost in the dark when you discover the harmful effects such software has on your computer system.

Last, most of the free software are just trial versions. You can use them for too long and then they expire. What’s worse is the reliance level they sometimes build inside your computer. Some cleverly unethical free software providers actually trigger spam if you do not buy their product right away. Now this is something you would want to avoid all the time.

These are the very reasons why everyone must be clever enough when it comes to distinguishing whether certain freebies are worth taking or not. When it comes to battling spam, it is sometimes better to be alone and sure, than to go with the free and experience and awful lot of uncertainty.

Can Spam is five

2008-11-01T03:01:00.000-07:00

THE CAN SPAM law which strikes terror into the heart of spammers everywhere and has totally eliminated unwanted email from our inbox is about to turn five.

Just think. Five years ago 45 per cent of all e-mails were unwanted pitches for such products as Viagra, penny stocks or porn sites.

The Internet was clogged with 15 billion spam messages and 74 per cent of online adults wanted a law that would make mass spamming illegal.

Congress passed the antispam bill known as the CAN-SPAM Act in December 2003 and over night the number of spam messages… er continued to increase.

The number has grown more than 10-fold, topping 164 billion worldwide in August 2008. Now more than 97 per cent of all e-mails are spam and it costs US ISPs and corporations an estimated $42 billion a year to remove it from their system.

These days most of the spam comes with poisoned payloads trying to get your PC to send out unwanted email.

It is not that the CAN-SPAM act has been totally useless. It has put a few spammers behind bars including the pharmacy spam king "Rizler" who is doing 30 years time. However the thought of doing time has deterred as many spammers as the death penalty has stopped American’s killing each other. CAN-SPAM is all about revenge after the fact, rather than any real deterrent.

Jaime de Guerre, CTO of antispam vendor Cloudmark told Network World that CAN-SPAM is mostly a flop and making laws was rather futile anyway because the attackers are so advanced in their threats and it’s so hard to detect where they are coming from.

Protecting your ID Anti-spam laws as useful as chocolate fireguard, says legal profession

2008-11-01T02:59:00.000-07:00

A US Justice Department prosecutor warned on Tuesday that a new spam law's criminal sanctions likely will not stem the flow of bulk solicitations that are flooding into email in-boxes.

Criminal laws "haven't done much to deter virus writers and hackers," said Anthony Teelucksingh, an attorney in the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.

Speaking at a one-day workshop convened by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Teelucksingh said the government is "very interested" in prosecuting criminal spammers but also attempted to downplay expectations. "I don't think that criminal prosecutions, even that many of them, will put that big a dent" in spam, he said.

The first federal law regulating spam, called the Can-Spam Act, took effect 1 January. Instead of banning unwanted email, Can-Spam instead laid down a complex set of rules - such as honouring unsubscribe requests - that spammers must follow.

Under Can-Spam, the Justice Department and federal prosecutors around the country can file criminal charges against the most egregious spammers who commit crimes such as falsifying headers, trying to mislead consumers, and using false information when buying a domain or signing up for a web mail account.

While no criminal cases have been brought so far, US attorneys "are very interested in pursuing cases under this new legislation as we are at Main Justice," Teelucksingh said, referring to the Justice Department's Washington DC headquarters. He said he's already been fielding calls from prosecutors asking for advice.

Don Blumenthal, an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and director of its internet lab, echoed Teelucksingh's cautionary tone.

"Can-Spam is not going to solve the problem," Blumenthal told the roughly 100 workshop attendees. "I think I just stated the obvious there."

Blumenthal said that in the wake of Can-Spam, the FTC has begun to devote more energy to spam investigations. Until now, the FTC has used its decades-old power to file civil lawsuits against unfair and deceptive business practices in a series of suits first filed in 2002.

"Spam's going to rule our world in the near future," Blumenthal said.

Michelle O'Neill, deputy assistant secretary at the Commerce Department, said she had been talking to her counterparts in other nations about what approach they should take.

O'Neill noted that the European Union had taken an 'opt in' approach, while the US Congress overwhelmingly voted for an 'opt out' mechanism. Warning of overly aggressive regulation, O'Neill said that "we want to preserve the right for legitimate business interests to use the internet."

Liberal Democrats Broke Anti-Spam Laws

2008-11-01T02:56:00.001-07:00

The Liberal Democrats are alleged to have broken UK laws regulating spam. By placing 250,000 automated telephone calls last week, the Liberal Democrats broke anti-spam laws, it has been claimed. The UK's privacy chief has said that that party risks legal action if it continues to make such calls to British homes. Consisting of a recorded message from Nick Clegg, the party's leader, the calls violated the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, according to Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner. Despite claims that the calls were made for "genuine market research", the Information Commissioner's Office said that 26 complaints had been logged. The party has now been instructed to halt the calls within the next 30 days or risk prosecution.

Liberal Democrats Broke Anti-Spam Laws

2008-11-01T02:56:00.000-07:00

The Liberal Democrats are alleged to have broken UK laws regulating spam.

By placing 250,000 automated telephone calls last week, the Liberal Democrats broke anti-spam laws, it has been claimed.

The UK's privacy chief has said that that party risks legal action if it continues to make such calls to British homes.

Consisting of a recorded message from Nick Clegg, the party's leader, the calls violated the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, according to Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner.

Despite claims that the calls were made for "genuine market research", the Information Commissioner's Office said that 26 complaints had been logged.

The party has now been instructed to halt the calls within the next 30 days or risk prosecution.

Earlier this week, Google Search Quality Team member Jason Morrison advised on how to deal with spam by implementing measures to keep it to a minimum.

Malicious Spam Rising According To Symantec

2008-11-01T02:53:00.000-07:00

Spam emails featuring destructive links and attachments are becoming more common, the IT firm has said.

IT solutions company Symantec has warned that malevolent spam messages have seen an increase during the second half of this year.

The latest report from the organisation says that 1.2 per cent of all email messages contain some type of malicious content and that 78 per cent of emails sent worldwide are spam.

"The increase began in May 2008 and continues to the present. During this period there has also been an increase in email messages carrying malware payloads, not just links to malicious code," the report stated.

In an international context, Symantec's research also found that China, the Republic of Korea, the US, Vietnam and Thailand were the greatest sources of most malicious spam.

People can do more to guard against ID theft, says group

2008-10-10T04:41:00.000-07:00

As the federal government makes efforts to protect citizens online, it is encouraging people to look out for themselves as well.

To kick off its fifth annual "National Cyber Security Month," the National Cyber Security Alliance, an organization of government, academic, and industry representatives, paired with Symantec to release the results of a national poll on Thursday showing Americans do not feel very safe online, yet they believe they are more protected than they actually are.

Just 26 percent of respondents said they felt their computers were "very safe" from viruses, and 21 percent felt their computers were "very safe" from hackers.

"We might be making it too difficult for people to feel safe," said Michael Kaiser, the director of the NCSA. "We need simple tips stripped of the jargon."

The report was released on the heels of a new law signed by President Bush last week that increases penalties for hacking and other cybercrime charges. Rolled in with an amendment to provide Secret Service protection to former vice presidents, the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act makes it a felony to damage 10 or more protected computers used by the federal government or a financial institution.

It also allows federal prosecutors to bring cybercrime charges against a person without having to meet any threshold for damages caused by the crime. In cases where an identity thief is ordered to pay restitution, the law calls for the victims to be compensated for the time they spent trying to remediate the damage.

The cybercrime provisions in the law "constitute some of the most significant laws so far" to protect people online, said Adam Rak, senior director for public awareness from Symantec. "Ultimately, though, the responsibility falls on all of us."

Rak said the three basic tools critical for keeping the average user safe are antivirus, antispyware, and firewall software.

Yet the NCSA study, which combined a survey of more than 3,000 Americans with an evaluation of 400 personal computers belonging to those surveyed, showed that most people do not have all three components.

"Just having anti-virus software is not enough," Rak said. "Picture a car with antilock brakes, airbags, and seat belts--I doubt any of us would buy a car without seat belts installed."

Just over 80 percent of respondents had antispyware protections enabled, and 95 percent had updated antivirus software. Yet just 50 percent had antiphishing protections.

Even though 81 percent of respondents said they had firewall protections on their computers, only 42 percent of those computers checked were actually equipped with them. As many as 75 percent of respondents thought they had antispam filters installed when, in fact, only 58 percent actually did.

INTERNET LAW - Anti-spam Laws In Argentina

2008-10-10T04:39:00.000-07:00

The Data Protection of Argentina Act (the “Act”) grants Argentinean citizens the right to request that a sender of spam mail ceases its transmission, and also created the National Directorate for Personal Data Protection which operates a registry of personal data holders, investigates spam incidents, and is empowered to impose sanctions such as injunctions or fines against spammers. Recipients of spam have successfully sought remedies pursuant to the Act.

Adware

2008-10-06T05:19:00.000-07:00

Adware is the cause of many annoyances to internet and computer users all over the world. It is the reason for those frustrating advertisements that reside in the free software you download and those exasperating ads that pop-up on your desktop every once in a while.

It's obvious that you have adware on your computer if you see advertisements within your programs or on your desktop, but adware affects your computer in other ways too. Signs your computer is affected by adware include (but are not limited to) a sluggish system and changed internet settings. How else does adware affect your computer, and do you want to put up with these problems?

Given that adware is a program downloaded from the internet, mostly by piggybacking on freeware (or free software) that you download, you may be wondering, is adware a safe program ? Find out about the risks of adware so you can decide if having this type of software on your computer is safe for you.

Given that there is more and more adware finding its way onto people's computers, you may want to look into adware removal, protection, and prevention. You can learn how to remove adware and methods of adware protection for your computer in the future. Ever wonder how anti-adware programs work? We've got you covered with that too.

What about pop-ups? How are they related to adware? Can those free pop-up blocker downloads help with your pop-up problems? You may want to learn about pop-up blockers to see if they are right for your computer.

Virginia Court Throws Out Spam Law; One Spammer Gets Away With It

2008-09-15T01:50:00.000-07:00

The 2004 criminal spam case against large-scale spammer Jeremy Jaynes, which I've covered in several previous blog entries, appears to have come to an ignominious end with the state supreme court throwing out the law under which he was convicted. The Virginia anti-spam law was one of the first in the country with criminal provisions, but it failed due to the way that First Amendment cases are treated differently from all other cases.

The court's decision is quite technical, dealing with issues of whether the prosecution and defense raised issues at appropriate times, and disposing of a bunch of other defense challenges that the lower courts also rejected. The court accepts that Jaynes did all the bad things the lower courts found that he did. (The expert witness they mention at the bottom of the third page of the decision was me, telling them that legitimate senders don't send mail like he did.)

Normally, an appeals court reviews the law "as applied", that is, in the context of the case in question. As applied, nobody found any problem with this case. But for the first amendment, there's a special overbreadth rule that asks whether the law might impermissibly contrstrain the speech of other people who did different things, in this case, sending non-commercial spam. The Virginia law forbade using fake IP addresses or domains, and didn't distinguish between commercial and other speech. The court noted that we have a long tradition of protecting anonymous political speech dating back to the Federalist papers, and decided that since that only way to send anonymous email is to use fake IP addresses and domains, the law was overbroad and threw it out.

I have some technical cavils with their analysis, but probably not enough to persuade a court otherwise. Forging IP addresses is a red herring: due to the way that TCP works you can't meaningfully forge them in e-mail. (You can put in headers with fake IPs, but the mail system will add more headers with the real IPs.) I'd also argue that there are a variety of ways to send mail without domain forgery, such as using throwaway free webmail accounts, or routing stuff through anonymizers such as Tor using domains that say it's OK for people to use them in anonymous mail.

The only place this can now be appealed is to the US Supreme Court, which the Virginia Attorney General reportedly plans to do. From the point of view of the SCOTUS, this case has an unpleasant mix of First Amendment issues (do they want to revisit the boundaries of commercial speech regulation?) and states rights (do they want to further limit the ability of state courts to interpret state laws?) so I'd be surprised if they accepted it.

For everyone except Jeremy Jaynes, this decision has little or no effect. Jaynes was tried for things he did in 2003, before CAN SPAM came into effect, and even his lawyer has said that if he did them now, CAN SPAM would catch him. All of the other state laws that I've looked at are CAN SPAM compliant, which means they only affect commercial spam. So I can't say I'm thrilled that Jaynes got off (after three years in house arrest), and less thrilled if he gets to keep the $20 million he reportedly made from spamming fake FedEx refund kits and the like, but it's not the end of the world.

Spam to be extinct by 2035

2008-09-09T03:00:00.000-07:00

Nobody needs telling that these are tough times for retailers. A number of well known names have recently knocked on the administrators' doors and some of these will ultimately become nothing more than memories.

A forthcoming book 'Future Files' by Richard Watson (Nicholas Brealey Publishing) who advises on trends won't exactly cheer retailers up with some of his predictions for the future on what he calls an 'extinction timeline' but it also suggests that it is not all black.

On the negative side he predicts that by 2013 video rental stores will be no more, all butchers shops will be gone by 2019, by 2018 all village shops will have disappeared, and by 2040 bank notes will have finally died a death.

On a slightly more positive note for retailers are his forecasts that people will have completely stopped mending things by next year, that advertising regulation will be gone by 2010, work-free weekends will be a thing of the past by 2023, and for food retailers it will probably be good to know that waistlines will have gone by 2024.

Retail aside, of much more concern are some of his other forecasts that reckon real handkerchiefs will be done for by 2017, lunch will not even be around for wimps by 2017, and 2035 will be a particularly momentous year because not only will oil run out but that delicacy Spam will be no more.

MIIT Reports SMS Spam Regulations Working

2008-09-09T02:56:00.000-07:00

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released a report on spam SMS regulation that began in June. Since then, the Ministry has dealt with 563 illegal points of entry into SMS networks, and Zhejiang Unicom has shut down 350 SMS products that do not conform to the regulations.

According to statistics from the Reporting Center for Malicious Networks and Spamming, the volume of reports on spam messages fell 85% in June.

In April, MIIT joined forces with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) to begin work on regulations to strengthen the management of SMS advertising services. The regulations constitute a first step towards achieving consensus on appropriate conditions and obligations for companies wishing to provide legal SMS advertising services, along with the scope of services permitted and the application procedures required to become and SMS advertising provider.

ATM frauds and Cyber Law in India

2008-08-31T23:45:00.000-07:00

Internet banking frauds and credit card frauds are growing in India. Preventing ATM frauds requires a coordinated and cooperative action on the part of the bank, customers and the law enforcement machinery..

INTERNET IS global in nature with no single territory and jurisdiction. This is both beneficial as well as harmful. It is beneficial as it connects people and organisation and helps them in interacting efficiently. It is dangerous as well as it provides the means to commit cyber crimes by its misuse.

Of late, we are witnessing a trend of credit card frauds and ATM frauds in India as well. The Cyber Law of India, as contained in the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000), is also silent on this aspect. Thus, Internet banking frauds and credit card frauds are growing in India.

According to Praveen Dalal, the Leading Techno-Legal ICT, Cyber Law, Cyber Security and Cyber Forensics specialist of India, "The problem of ATM frauds is global in nature and its ramifications have been felt in India as well. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is forcing Indian legal system to adapt itself as per its requirements. Presently, there is a lack of legal enablement of ICT systems in India and we need good laws in this regard. The IT Act, 2000, does not contain any specific provisions regarding the same and the traditional law of Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, also cannot be relied solely and independently to tackle this problem. We need a better law for this purpose and Perry4Law has already provided its suggestions and recommendations in this regard and other ICT related matters to the government of India, department of information technology, department of science and technology, Prime Minister’s Office, etc. Till we have suitable and apt laws, we must apply existing laws in a purposive and updating manner."

It seems that the government of India has accepted the recommendations of Dalal and has announced to amend the IT Act, 2000, keeping in mind the requirement of cyber forensics in India. A very interesting ’national consensus building exercise’ regarding development of capacity for legal enablement of ICT systems in India is taking place that has been spearheaded by Dalal and the leading Techno-Legal platforms of India like PTLB, PTLITC, etc. Like in the past, government of India is going to accept the results of this exercise that provides solutions to prevent ATM frauds in India.

"The mechanisms like designated time, microchip technology, biometric tokens, enhanced security, ATM monitoring, customised softwares, customer motivation, alerts, etc can be used to minimise and prevent ATM frauds in India. The banks must spread public awareness in this regard among the public so that these frauds can be prevented. However, preventing ATM frauds is not the sole problem of banks alone. It is a big threat and it requires a coordinated and cooperative action on the part of the bank, customers and the law enforcement machinery.

The ATM frauds not only causes financial loss to banks but they also undermine customers’ confidence in the use of ATMs. This would deter a greater use of ATM for monetary transactions. It is, therefore, in the interest of banks to prevent ATM frauds," Dalal said.

At present, when the Internet banking frauds and credit card frauds are posing a big threat to India, all the stakeholders must come together to fight the menace of these crimes and contraventions.

Protect your identity

2008-05-19T03:30:00.000-07:00

Financial frauds committed by stealing identities are getting more innovative and widespread by the day. Here’s a snapshot and how to prevent it.

PAPIYA Phukan, a beauty consultant based in Guwahati, got a call last month ostensibly from her bank. The caller claimed to be doing “routine upgradation” of records, and wanted Phukan to confirm her date of birth, address and secret question. An unsuspecting Phukan says: “Since she did not ask for my account number I did not think anything of it,” and provided the information. Her husband, however, did not take it as lightly, and insisted that she change her Internet banking password. “Thank God I listened to him! The following week I discovered that my account was blocked because of three consecutive wrong entries,” says Phukan. This could happen to any of us. It’s just that we do not take identity theft seriously. “ It won’t happen to me” is the standard refrain. Allow us to burst that particular bubble of complacency and say that it can happen to you, and it might already have happened. You’re not safe online or offline.

Sniffing and skimming, two forms of offline identity theft, involve stealing data from a distance from radio frequency identification tags— this includes office security tags or swipe cards— or even from the magnetic strip on your debit card.

Credit card fraud is the most common type of identity theft. Take the case of Raman Bhanot, an international sports broadcaster. Out shopping for a watch in a popular showroom in Delhi, he was told the card machine in the shop was not working so he allowed the shop assistant to take his card to a neighbouring store. Only when his bank’s head office called up to confirm if he had made online purchases worth over Rs 40,000 did he realise he was a victim of card skimming. It took a six-month battle to make the bank reverse the fraudulent charges.

Online investing is another target area. A recent case resolved by Cyber Smart, a portal that provides legal solutions to tech- related fraud, involved fraudulent securities transactions using an innocent client’s user- name and password. Some years ago, Chugh Securities, Delhi- based stock brokers, suffered a loss of Rs 6.15 lakh when the person who installed the company’s firewall hacked into the system.

According to a study by Symantec’s Pune- based Security Response Lab, there has been a six- fold rise in phishing attacks on Indian banks, from just 20 in October 2007 to 120 attacks in January this year. Further, KPMG’s latest fraud report reveals that Indian companies acknowledge that identity theft is going to be one of the top 10 risks they face in the next three years. What is worrying is that home users are targeted in 95% of these attacks. That’s because at least 15% of home users go online without adequate security software. That there is a problem is obvious when you see that even a relatively small outfit like the Indian Detective Agency claims to receive 10- 20 cases of online identity thefts a month.

Identity theft has reached pandemic proportions in the US where there’s a victim every four seconds. Only way to avoid similar statistics here is by being aware. With consumer databases for everything, from high net worth individuals in India to female credit card holders in specific cities, being openly sold online— and in the grey market— for $ 200 or less, the stage is set for mass identity thefts.

The good news is that under Indian law, banks, credit card companies and other financial service providers cannot force innocent victims to bear the brunt of such frauds.

The bad news is that, in the absence of specific laws for such crimes, one has to be prepared to battle it out for years before justice is done. More important, you have to take steps the minute you discover that your identity has been hijacked. Says Gurpreet Singh, an IT lawyer with Amarjeet and Associates: “The first thing to do is to inform your bank and the police. The longer you delay reporting, the colder the trail grows and the more unlikely your chances of proving fraud.” Most people do not realise that they have been victims of fraud till it’s too late. Says Singh: “If just Rs 200- 300 is missing from your account, you are more likely to ignore it, thinking it’s not worth the hassle. Like you, a thousand other account- holders too will keep silent, while a fraudster somewhere will be rolling in money and, unfortunately, getting away scot- free.”

Maninder Walia, a researcher at Cyber Smart, says: “Identity theft could well be the biggest kind of cyber fraud in India but it often goes undetected and is usually unreported.” Pavan Duggal, an advocate with the Supreme Court of India who specialises in cyber law, has conducted a survey on the extent of under- reporting cyber crimes and claims that for every 500 instances of cyber crimes that take place in India, only 50 are reported and of that, only one is registered as a criminal case. If you cannot protect your identity from being stolen, make sure that you at least report the crime.

The Magnitude:

Identity theft will be among the top 10 risks faced by Indian companies in the near future.
Home users are targeted in 95% of such attacks.
Phishing attacks on banks have gone up six times since October.
Consumer databases are being openly sold online.

The Most Common Methods:

Soliciting personal information on the phone or online.
Credit/ debit cards are skimmed at merchandise establishments.

Protect your identity

2008-05-19T03:16:00.000-07:00

Financial frauds committed by stealing identities are getting more innovative and widespread by the day. Here’s a snapshot and how to prevent it.

PAPIYA Phukan, a beauty consultant based in Guwahati, got a call last month ostensibly from her bank. The caller claimed to be doing “routine upgradation” of records, and wanted Phukan to confirm her date of birth, address and secret question.

An unsuspecting Phukan says: “Since she did not ask for my account number I did not think anything of it,” and provided the information. Her husband, however, did not take it as lightly, and insisted that she change her Internet banking password. “Thank God I listened to him! The following week I discovered that my account was blocked because of three consecutive wrong entries,” says Phukan. This could happen to any of us. It’s just that we do not take identity theft seriously. “ It won’t happen to me” is the standard refrain. Allow us to burst that particular bubble of complacency and say that it can happen to you, and it might already have happened. You’re not safe online or offline.

Sniffing and skimming, two forms of offline identity theft, involve stealing data from a distance from radio frequency identification tags— this includes office security tags or swipe cards— or even from the magnetic strip on your debit card.

Credit card fraud is the most common type of identity theft. Take the case of Raman Bhanot, an international sports broadcaster. Out shopping for a watch in a popular showroom in Delhi, he was told the card machine in the shop was not working so he allowed the shop assistant to take his card to a neighbouring store. Only when his bank’s head office called up to confirm if he had made online purchases worth over Rs 40,000 did he realise he was a victim of card skimming. It took a six-month battle to make the bank reverse the fraudulent charges.

Online investing is another target area. A recent case resolved by Cyber Smart, a portal that provides legal solutions to tech- related fraud, involved fraudulent securities transactions using an innocent client’s user- name and password.

Some years ago, Chugh Securities, Delhi- based stock brokers, suffered a loss of Rs 6.15 lakh when the person who installed the company’s firewall hacked into the system. According to a study by Symantec’s Pune- based Security Response Lab, there has been a six- fold rise in phishing ( see box Cyber Crime Lexicon ) attacks on Indian banks, from just 20 in October 2007 to 120 attacks in January this year.

Further, KPMG’s latest fraud report reveals that Indian companies acknowledge that identity theft is going to be one of the top 10 risks they face in the next three years. What is worrying is that home users are targeted in 95% of these attacks. That’s because at least 15% of home users go online without adequate security software. That there is a problem is obvious when you see that even a relatively small outfit like the Indian Detective Agency claims to receive 10- 20 cases of online identity thefts a month.

Identity theft has reached pandemic proportions in the US where there’s a victim every four seconds. Only way to avoid similar statistics here is by being aware. With consumer databases for everything, from high net worth individuals in India to female credit card holders in specific cities, being openly sold online— and in the grey market— for $ 200 or less, the stage is set for mass identity thefts.

The good news is that under Indian law, banks, credit card companies and other financial service providers cannot force innocent victims to bear the brunt of such frauds. The bad news is that, in the absence of specific laws for such crimes, one has to be prepared to battle it out for years before justice is done.

More important, you have to take steps the minute you discover that your identity has been hijacked. Says Gurpreet Singh, an IT lawyer with Amarjeet and Associates: “The first thing to do is to inform your bank and the police. The longer you delay reporting, the colder the trail grows and the more unlikely your chances of proving fraud.”

Most people do not realise that they have been victims of fraud till it’s too late. Says Singh: “If just Rs 200- 300 is missing from your account, you are more likely to ignore it, thinking it’s not worth the hassle.

Like you, a thousand other account- holders too will keep silent, while a fraudster somewhere will be rolling in money and, unfortunately, getting away scot- free.” Maninder Walia, a researcher at Cyber Smart, says: “Identity theft could well be the biggest kind of cyber fraud in India but it often goes undetected and is usually unreported.” Pavan Duggal, an advocate with the Supreme Court of India who specialises in cyber law, has conducted a survey on the extent of under- reporting cyber crimes and claims that for every 500 instances of cyber crimes that take place in India, only 50 are reported and of that, only one is registered as a criminal case.

If you cannot protect your identity from being stolen, make sure that you at least report the crime.

The Magnitude:

* Identity theft will be among the top 10 risks faced by Indian companies in the near future.
* Home users are targeted in 95% of such attacks.
* Phishing attacks on banks have gone up six times since October.
* Consumer databases are being openly sold online.

The Most Common Methods:

* Soliciting personal information on the phone or online.
* Credit/ debit cards are skimmed at merchandise establishments.

CYBER CRIME LEXICON

2008-05-19T02:43:00.000-07:00

BOTS:
Also called web robots, these are usually used in search engines, auction sites and the like, which need simple, repetitive tasks to be performed fast. However, there’s a dark side to bots, when they are used like worms. They are small enough to hide behind pop- ups and smart enough to use sophisticated social engineering to make people click on their malicious links.

DNS POISONING:
Every website has a numeric address. Poisoning modifies the domain name system table in a server so that someone hits fraudulent sites thinking they are accessing legitimate ones.

DRIVE- BY DOWNLOADING:
When a user visits a non secure site, details of their computer are hijacked. Later, the site looks for vulnerabilities in the user’s PC and then installs a key logger.

KEYLOGGER:
An application that makes a note of keystrokes made on the computer for getting hold of banking and credit card information.

PHISHING:
A method of trying to gather personal information using deceptive e- mails and websites .

PHARMING:
A practice in which malicious code is installed on a computer or server, misdirecting users.

SKIMMING:
The illegal copying of information from the magnetic strip of a credit or ATM card.

SNIFFING: Akin to eavesdropping, here the attacker gains access to the network TCP/ IP traffic path of the victim.

SPOOFING:
This comes in two varieties. In “ e- mail spoofing” the header of an e- mail appears to have originated somewhere other than the actual source. In “ IP spoofing” the intruder sends a message to a computer with a fake IP address, appearing to be coming from a trusted source.

TROJANS:
This is a program that enters stealthily and offers the hacker remote- access and control of the system. It is similar to a virus, except that it does not replicate itself. Trojans often sneak in with free games.

URL HIJACKING:
Also known as “ typo- squatting”. People often make spelling errors typing URLs. A mis-spelt version of a popular URL is registered and used by the fraudster. For example, “ citbank.com” instead of citibank.com.

WIRELESS HACKING:
If your wireless network or Bluetooth system isn’t secure and encrypted, the information on your phone or computer could easily be hacked.

Bulk Email Theory

2008-05-08T01:21:00.000-07:00

When people switch on their computer the first thing most will do is check their emails.

Email marketing can be a fantastic way of staying in touch with your customer base and making an impression on new customers. Whether it is simply a welcome message, a promotional offer a fortnightly newsletter or quarterly company magazine delivered into your customer's inbox, email marketing increases and maintain product awareness. But good email marketing is also selective. If you start spamming your customers with junk mail every day, sell your customer list to an advertising firm or commit any other online marketing falce pas then email marketing will work against your business.

Good email marketing should involve a personalized message that really reaches out to your customer, and should be made up of well though out content.

Give me a similarity...

You can think of these three main forms of email marketing as the electronic equivalent of: Direct mail Sending people a print newsletter Placing advertisements in subscription magazines and newspapers There is, however, one extremely important difference - the issue of permission.

Establish your goals

There are a number of reasons why you should consider conducting email marketing, but defining your goals before you start will help make your campaign more successful.

Ask yourself some questions before you start. Do you want to increase the number of visitors and therefore potential customers to your site? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Do you want to use it as a tool for conveying special offers or promotions? Or do you want to get feedback from your customers to improve customer service?

Virtues of email marketing

What exactly are the virtues of email marketing?

It's cheap
Compared to direct mailing or producing a printed newsletter the costs are next to nothing. You don't have to pay for production, paper, printing or postage.

It's instant
Email reaches your customers instantly at the click of a mouse and more and more people are using email to communicate every day. Research has shown that on average users respond to emails within 48 hours, in comparison it can take between 6 and 8 weeks for a customer to respond to a snail mail campaign.

It's easy to track
You can easily monitor the success of an email campaign. Tracking how many bounce-backs have occurred, how many positive or negative responses there have been, how many click throughs to a offer on your site, if there has been a substantial rise in sales after an email was sent, is all simple to do.

Increased communication
Email is a good way of retaining communication links with you customers and increasing brand awareness - especially if you do a lot of business online.

Compliments online strategy
Email marketing goes hand in hand with the marketing mix, and should be part of an overall marketing strategy.

The growth of email
Researchers predict that the still relatively young bulk email marketing industry, which has been booming since 1999 will continue to grow through to 2006 when analysts expect it to top the $2 billion mark. What is more, businesses will begin to see email campaigns as an inaugural part of their overall marketing strategies. However the success of email marketing hinges somewhat on the actions of businesses. Businesses need to keep their email marketing strategies ethical and legal if consumers are to remain open to it.

What's "permission"?

Responsible bulk email marketing is based on the idea of permission. This is a complex issue and the subject of intense debate in the marketing community. Essentially, you need an email address owner's permission before you can send them a commercial email. If you don't have this permission, then the recipients of your mail may well regard your message as spam; unsolicited commercial (bulk) email.

Are Invitations spam?

2008-05-02T22:33:00.000-07:00

Q1 - I would like to know if inviting viewers of my email to subscribe to my
newsletters that I send out from MyNewSite.com seen as spam?

Q2 - As I surf on the internet and come across a group or individual I would like to invite to subscribe to my group on Mysite.com and the newsletter?

This is sort of how the invitation would look like, it may also have some graphics with it.

Subject: {Your Friend} is Inviting to join MyNewSite.com
From: Invite at MyNewSite.com
To: Invited User Email
Data: Today
{Your Friend} has invited you to join MyNewSite.com

To Accept this invitation click this link: http://www.MyNewSite.com/join/invite=12354
To Decline this invitation do Nothing, You have not been subscribed to receive any emails
{Your Friend's Message goes here}
you should join this!
Thanks,
{Your Friend} and MyNewSite.com

A1 - To answer the first art of your question, Invitations that are sent by a individual to a friend or aquantence are generally not considered to be spam. Current subscribers of your list should be ok with this, that is if you have already obtained their permission to communicate with them via email. Sending an announcement in your current email program that invites them to your new one would be the best way to do this.

A2 - As for invitations there are several ways for list managers and users to utilize these types of invitation tools correctly:

DO:
Users: Know the individual your inviting
Users: Know that they have some interest in the topic that they are being invited to
List Managers: Invitations are one time triggered mailings to a individual or group of individuals that are entered by the initiator {Your Friend}
List Managers: Include an opt-out of all future invites, regardless of who sends it for recipients.

DO NOT:
Users: Send to everyone in your address book
List Managers/Users: Send invitations to addresses that are harvested from newsgroups, web pages or other by other means.

List Managers: Send multiple invitations to users that do not click the "Accept this invitation" link or have previously asked not to be communicated with.

Why does governments allow spam?

2008-05-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

Governments are catching up with spam laws, but sadly many have not legislated this yet. Canada has no spam laws, even though the "Federal Anti-Spam Task Force" recommended this in 2004. Country specific laws can be found at Spamlaws.com

The United States has legislated email with CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) in 2003. This law require several elements of a commercial email message conform to a minimum set of standards. Here is a rundown of the law's main provisions:

It bans false or misleading header information
It prohibits deceptive subject lines
It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method, which must be processed within 10 days of receiving by the sender
It requires that commercial email
be identified as an advertisement and include the sender's valid physical
postal address.

Unsolicited bulk e-mail that complies with these rules is legal under CAN SPAM, even though such UBE is widely considered to be spam.

The Internet community is also working on several global initiatives to help stem the tide of unsolicited commercial email, CAUCE recently endorsed the Senders BCP published by MAAWG, written mostly by Email Service Providers with input from ISPs, Corporations and RBL providers.

How the Hackers Break Into Your Secure Accounts?

2007-09-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

Hackers have been developing horribly sophisticated skills to access your secure accounts. If you are a programmer you may like to develop anti-hacking software. However, if you are a common man like me you can make yourself securer if you dont let them access to your password. In most of the Paypal hacking incidents, people provided their secured information willingly to the hackers without knowing it.

1. You Send Your Secure Information Through Email:
Email is insecure mode of communication. It can easily be intercepted. So it is dangerous to send your secured information through email. However, it is last nail in your financial coffin to send your user id and password directly to the inbox of a hacker.
How is it possible?

You receive an email from Paypal admin that due to some technicalities they have messed with your account. They ask your user id and password to fix the problem. You see that from field contains anything@paypal.com . You have nothing to fear and send your information directly to the inbox of a hacker who is misrepresenting as admin of the Paypal. There are programs which can hide real contact of the sender with some fake email address.

2. You Disclose Your User Id and Password to Hackers at their Websites.
It is stranger but it easier than the previous one. You receive a security alert from Paypal which requires you to log-in through the link or provided with the email. But in 100% cases that URL or form shall take you to some fake website that shall look like that of Paypal. You supply your user id and password but the log-in page of the Paypal re-opens.
Alert!
You have been hacked. Dont think that you had mistyped your password (which we often do). Log-in to your account and change your password immediately.

3. You Pay hacker to Break in your account:
You may term me crazy but it is the most dangerous strategy that hackers use. They build a business-like website and put some products for sale. You visit their site, select a product and click the payment button of any company. You may land at a fake website having copied web-pages of the concerned company. You try to log-in but that page reopens. Not having Paypal hacking idea, you submit your information now at the real site to pay him $20.00 for the product. Next day or after some time you may find your account empty.

4. Misspelled Domain Name:
Anybody can get a domain name registered for a few bucks. The hacker shall simply get a domain name closer in look to the any of the money processing companies but with different spellings such as stompay, paypla etc. Now it is matter of time. Whenever you make a typo (we do often), you shall land at this fake website. Thinking it genuine one, you put your secured information in the hackers files.

How to Avoid Financial Loss?

2007-09-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

How to Avoid Financial Loss?
You are responsible for security of your password. You can avoid major financial losses if you take following pre-cautions.

Change Your Password Frequently:
You dont know whether your last deal was with a genuine businessman or a hacker. Even if he is a real business, it will take only a few seconds to change your password after each transaction. If that is not possible then change your password at least once a week.

Never Email Your User Id and Password:
Whatever reason the president of your money processing company may quote, never send your user id and password to him via email. In fact the company does not need your user id and password to fix any technical problem.

Never Log-in from links in Your Email:
Never log-in your money processing account from any link or form that you receive through email. In 99% cases you shall be hacked.

Look for a security lock at your browser before Logging in. Whenever you process your money online your browser should display a security lock icon. In the case of Internet Explorer it appears at lower left part of your window. If you dont find such a security lock you are at risk. That is not original website of the company.

Always log-in from Your Favorites Folder:
To avoid typo mistake, you should always log-in to your money processing accounts from your Favorites folder. You MUST Type URL of the company very carefully for the first time. After that whenever you shall visit the site from your Favorites folder, you shall reach to the genuine site. If you are too green, it is very easy to add a site to your Favorites folder.

Just follow these steps if you use Internet Explorer:
Click Favorites at top menu bar of your Internet Explorer. Click Add to Favorites from the drop-down menu.
A new window shall open.
Click New Folder and name that Accounts.
Select your Accounts folder and click O.K.
It is done!

Always Log Out after completing Your Operation:
Many people lose their money simply by not logging out from the secured sites specially at public terminals. There is nothing wrong if you develop habit to log-out every secured site even at your home P.C. You don’t know when your children may mess with your accounts innocently.

Watch Out For Cookies:
Most of the money processing companies put their cookies at your computer when you visit them for the first time. Whenever you re-visit your account, you shall see your user id field already filled. Just enter your password and you shall have access to your account. However, no false website shall display your User Id upfront. But it doesn’t mean that every secured site which does not show your id is false. You may have lost your cookies for one reason or the other. However, it is good to be watchful.

Always Opt for Email Notification for Each transaction:
When you create an account with any of the money processing companies, always set your preferences for email notification per each transaction. If somebody transfers money without your knowledge, you shall get an immediate email notification. You can contact the company admin and they may be helpful in some cases.

9. Always Use Complicated Passwords:
Sometimes hackers use codes to break into your secure accounts. It is much better to use complicated passwords which not only include digits but also a mix of capital and small letters.

Whatever measure you adopt, you cant guarantee that your secure accounts shall not be hacked. The best advice is to keep as little money as possible in your money processing accounts. If your accounts are hacked you shall lose very little.

10. Don't Give Your Downloadable Return Page
I have seen some newbie’s providing their download page as their return page for the StormPay button to make the access INSTANT. It is dangerous because StormPay shows your return page in the source code of your web-page. There is particular part of a StormPay payment button at my website:

If your return URL is your download page for 'INSTANT ACCESS" anyone can download your products without paying you a penny. Some people have reported such type of problem with the PayPal too but I don't use their services so I can't comment about them.

What is SSL Server?

2007-09-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) means a standard for establishing a secure communications channel to prevent the interception of your critical information.

Primarily it enables secure electronic financial transactions on internet. All money processing companies such as StormPay, Paypal, and e-gold etc use the most secure socket layers at their servers.

Hackers with their extreme skills and powerful computers (theoretically) cant intercept your communications with these companies. But you might have experienced or heard that hackers have been accessing secure sites. Millions of dollars are drained every year from processing accounts.

The Mediocre Practice Of Guestbook Spamming

2007-09-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

With a wide array of means and the race towards getting higher page hits and page ranks today, spamming is the term that best describes leaving behind comments on various sites, particularly guestbook scripts placed for visitors to leave behind supposedly harmless reactions or insights.

Guestbook Spam has become one of the resorts that can be seen on the various websites. It can be easy to spot guestbook spamming, particularly comments that have nothing to do with the site relevance, and providing links towards other sites in the guestbook as well. Guestbook spamming is another resort of most people to be able to spread their sites and try to invite other visitors to direct themselves to the site they are endorsing.

There have been a number of ways for people to be able to combat these guestbook-spamming activities, most of which have used moderation methods prior to allowing the post to be done. While guestbook spamming has not yet been completely practiced, guestbook anti-spamming is slowly following the lead of online blogs and forums that have implemented constraints to avoid their sites from becoming spamming origins for their valued visitors. Guestbook spam scripts have been made developed as well, helping relieve people of such guestbook spam practices. Such guestbook spam protection has helped in making the lives of site owners a whole lot more worry free, the fact that guestbook spamming is the trend that most people do to day to be able to drive in traffic to their websites.

Guestbook spam had only become rampant since the introduction of the adsense programs by Google. While the search engine should not be pinpointed for being the cause of all these practices, the fact that trying to go around the system of Google is something that most people love to do.

Spamming guest books of websites that have higher page ranks and lack the proper guestbook anti-spamming scripts and protection are like sitting ducks waiting to be preyed upon by such people. Guestbook spamming will only need time until the guestbook script programming and protection have been implemented. But for now, the best that people can do is screen the guestbook comments and leave it up to them on whether to approve such inputs or categorize them as guestbook spam and will not be shown on the site’s guestbook for visitors to see.

It is not hard to spot possible guestbook spamming techniques. While to generalize all of them is certainly not proper, the immediate indicators are the content of the left message and possible hyperlinks to sites which are only aiming to re-direct people into checking out the site. People who see this may choose to ignore, but the point is that every time a visitor would check out past or current messages coming from different visitors, some just cannot help but avoid checking out the link left on the guestbook and suffice their curiosity.

Another easy way to determine this is off-topic posts that are in no way relevant to the site’s theme. Some pranksters would simply create inputs to increase the rate of keywords that are queried in a single search from the search engine giants. Spotting this immediately is in most cases a clear example of guestbook spamming.

Online payday lending and the CAN-SPAM Act:

2007-09-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

The CAN-SPAM Act delineates guidelines for using email addresses for the purpose of sending and receiving electronically transmitted marketing materials. It is an extensive act, and here are some of the basics.

First of all, the Act prohibits the sending of unsolicited email. New online payday lending websites are springing up every day and each is competing hard to steer the attention of the masses in its own direction. Mass emailing messages with flashy advertisements and discounted offers is a popular way to steer new customers to this lucrative business.

One way to distinguish a good online payday lending business from the bad ones is by never agreeing to do business with a payday loan company that sends you unsolicited commercial email. Any legitimate company would never purposely violate the CAN-SPAM Act so youd have to wonder about the legitimacy of a payday loan company that would intentionally do so.

The CAN-SPAM Act also states that the information in e-mail headers and subject lines must not to be falsified. If you find yourself the willing recipient of advertising from an online payday lending company and you are tempted to respond to the e-mail, go ahead and do so. If the information to which you responded turns out to be incorrect or misleading, that company could be in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.

Choose online payday lending businesses that adhere to the CAN-SPAM Act.

Another section of the CAN-SPAM Act states that any email message you receive must include an opt-out link. The link is a way of notifying the sender that you no longer want to receive email from that sender. If the email lacks such opt-out opportunity, the online payday lending business is violating the CAN-SPAM Act. Again, thats probably one online payday lender you should stay away from.

Even though most online payday lending businesses are legitimate, some aren’t. The CAN-SPAM Act helps weed out the bad online payday lending companies so you don’t have to.

Online Payday Lending And The CAN-SPAM Act

2007-09-17T11:13:00.002-07:00

The Internet-based sector of the payday loan industry began in the 1990s, when the CAN-SPAM Act didnt yet exist..

Thats because the Act didnt exist back then. But as the popularity of the payday lending industry has grown, along with the popularity of all sorts of online businesses, it was time for the false claims and the intrusive nature of e-mail marketing to come under control once and for all.

When the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 became reality, the online payday lending industry took notice.The goal of CAN-SPAM, short for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act was to set standards for distinguishing between e-mails that are legitimate and those which are SPAM.

The sending of SPAM is against the law. Since the Act applies to all businesses that use email in their operations, most payday lenders found themselves needing to understand this new law that outlined severe consequences including penalties and jail.

How to Benefit from Comment Spam

2007-09-17T11:13:00.001-07:00

It happens all the time. You have your blog up and running. You're writing interesting stuff and you're even getting some attention. All of a sudden there's a flood of comments on your site. Having comments helps a blog look busier, so everyone wants to get comments.

But Comment Spam like:Get Rich Quick! Visit my site atWant to meet girls?! Visit wwwLow cost morgages for anywon! Check out www. Grrrrr these aren't comments, they're unpaid ads, taking up space on your site.(*and yes, they frequently have misspellings like the third one!) It makes your blood boil. How dare they!? What right do they have, cluttering up your comment section with their advertising! Comments that are off-topic and blatant ads are annoying. Most comment spam is self serving claptrap that needs to be deleted, and doing so is just the cost of doing business in the blogosphere. But lately new breeds of blog comments have started arriving at blogs all over the web.

Comments like:"Nice job keep up the great work!" "I really enjoyed this post and I'll be back often!" "Wow, you really made me think. Thanks for the insight!"Unfortunately, these comments are not from legitimate readers, but instead they're from some pharmaceutical or casino site just trying to get free links.
You see, some comment spammers have even gotten clever, writing praise and reasonable comments that a blog owner would hesitate to delete, hopeful that maybe, just maybe, they're legitimate comments. This tactic ensures that the sites get free links all around the blogosphere.
If the link was from a legitimate reader who really intends to "come back often", you'll get a note by email or a follow up comment that protests your change. When you find out it's a real person who really liked what you said, you can make the decision to put the link back.
I personally have no trouble allowing legitimate links from my blog. That's what makes the blogosphere interesting.Do you have any tips and tricks to make people more successful with their blogs? Can you help website owners get more customers?

Stop Spam

2007-09-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

Over a decade ago, “spam” connoted a certain food product usually enjoyed for breakfast.

Today, in the internet age, when people say “spam”, the first thing that comes to mind is junk mail, or those unwanted emails that come into your mailbox offering you all sorts of things from breast and penis enlargements to loans, to bogus offers.

Spam tends to take up your mailbox space and eat up your bandwidth resources that it has become such a major problem and annoyance. Recent moves have been made by responsible individuals to push an anti-spamming law to punish those that commit it. And as spamming application grows sophisticated by the minute, the more effort anti-spamming advocates have to exert to thwart this perennial problem.

Individually though, how does one stop spam from coming through the emails? Read on below for some of our suggestions.Normally, all email clients have built in spam filters and other similar programs to detect and stop spam. But often, these are not enough to protect emails from receiving those annoying emails because as mentioned earlier, spam has become more developed over the years.

Fortunately, there are several other third party spam blockers and spam filters which you can download for free and then install on your computers. Some even have additional features that can easily flag phishing scams, or those emails that contain fraudulent messages supposedly coming from big banks and financial companies and are targeting your finances.What is the difference between spam filters and spam blockers?Spam filters – Identifies and stops spam which carry certain key words and spam texts before it even reaches the mailbox.

The problem though, with many spam filter system is that it may potentially also block emails coming from legitimate accounts. So make sure that these spam filters are installed properly. Filtering emails does not guarantee a stop to spam, but it can make your Internet activity fairly easier.

Spam blockers – Identifies and stops spam based on assigned blacklist containing the spammers’ email addresses or ISP. The downside of this is some spammers often change their ISP’s and addresses and this may not be assigned in the blacklist.

You have to make sure to update your blacklist often.Whether it’s a spam filter or spam blocker, or both, it is best to monitor and identify what you need versus the features these applications offers before you install your choice into your computer.

The other thing you can do to stop spam is to keep your email addresses separate and private. As most people carry a work email and a string of personal emails, use it for specific purposes only (e.g. work email addresses must strictly be for work only). Then divulge your email address only to persons you would like to exchange emails with. This move should help you stop spam by half.

Use a personal free mail service when signing up online forums, groups or filling out online subscriptions. An email address specifically for these can be regarded as a “throwaway” or a “dummy email” which could serve as a buffer between your other more important emails.

Stopping spam takes a conscious effort. Those email address have to be safeguarded by the user (you) to protect you from many of the harm that Internet use poses.

Differentiating Authentic E-Mail From Notorious E-Mail Spamming

2007-09-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

Among the malicious discomforts that most people can expect over the web is the presence of e-mail spamming practices wherein an e-mail account received various messages coming from an unknown origin. E-mail messages coming from an unknown contact would always be a prime candidate for possible spam e-mail.

Rightfully so, catchy subject lines should make people who check their e-mail suspicious of up to nothing messages, that may eventually trick users into replying or perhaps be directed to websites that are contained through scripts included in the e-mail.

In short, spammed e-mail is defined as unsolicited mail sent to many people. However, it should be noted that a message written for or e-mailed to one individual that is known to the sender is not spam. A reply to an e-mail is not considered to be spam unless the reply continuously repeats itself.

A good question to ponder upon is why people resort to such pathetic practices of e-mail spamming. For one, site promotion is among the tops in the agenda of people who resort to this type of method. The need to increase the sites visitors and gather more hits can be done through directing unknowing e-mail users of the site, and offering outrageous deals and privileges from this e-mail spamming practice. The other probable purpose is to create havoc and make life miserable to most people who look towards creating mischief for innocent people who are not adept with the Internet security issues.

More and more people are seen to be fighting off this e-mail spamming practice, and most have gone to the extent of having banned their e-mail host providers from less credible e-mail origins. Most sites, usually coming from the big corporate sectors and Internet service providers that provide e-mail services, look out for the total security of their customers and members.

There will be instances where e-mails sent may be rejected or bounced, for the reason that previous experiences from unsolicited e-mails which are considered e-mail spamming, want to be contained and avoided to retain and secure the integrity of the system itself. To avoid such e-mail spammers cannot be immediately identified. For one, looking at the point of origin, particularly the sender and the host provider are not enough to be able to contain these malicious spamming practices.

Various tactics as hiding the actual sender’s e-mail address by using groups is a way of making these e-mail spammers untraceable in most cases. One last point that can be added is how these up to no good people are able to harvest such e-mails.

One is through websites, serving notice as to why most sites do not place e-mail addresses in their sites and resort to online forms and scripts or placing their e-mail addresses by using images in place of them. Such a practice has been deemed a good control for e-mails spamming control for most websites and the webmasters whom have resorted to such have devised a way to put a halt to such notorious e-mail spamming activities, often making life miserable to most people who look like sitting ducks and unaware of the Internet mischief that awaits them in the form of spamming via their e-mail accounts.

Free Anti Spamming

2007-09-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

Do you feel alone when it comes to battling cyber spam? If so, then you might want to try free anti spam software and programs. That’s right now you can start eliminating irritating spam with one- of- a- kind tools such as these. These will prove perfect in solving your cyber problems in absolutely no time.

What’s more, this will help you rejuvenate your currently lagging cyber experiences without having to shell out as much as a penny.The only risk when it comes to free anti spam programs and software will be the trickery involved behind these things. Since they are obtained for free, it’s always hard to track responsibility once the free anti spam software or antispam programs you obtained fizzles and backfires on your computer. However, there are worse scenarios than this. These scenarios are more than what you have bargained for. This is the very reason why you must read on all these at once!

First, a free anti spam software or anti spam program might just be a virus in disguise. Most virus agents know how much of suckers people are when it comes to freebies. As such, they embellish these viruses as anti spam programs or software, which can be yours for free.

A user can only find out too soon that he or she has been had when the virus takes effect on the computer. Cleverly enough, the free anti spam provider will sell updates o the distressed user. Unethical as it is, it works. Secondly, free software may come with over the top updating needs. Although the free anti spam software or antispam program may be legitimate, a user must always be keen on the updating clauses. Most free software come with charged updates. This makes up for the free program. However, you will soon find out that the amount you could have spent on buying an anti spam program or software with free updates, could have been less. This is in comparison with the amount you spend on your free one’s paid updates. Thirdly, free software never helps anyone take legal action against such cyber assaults. Since it’s free, no one is deemed liable for the damage such disguised viruses inflict on anyone’s computer system. You will be lost in the dark when you discover the harmful effects such software has on your computer system.Last, most of the free software are just trial versions. You can use them for too long and then they expire. What’s worse is the reliance level they sometimes build inside your computer. Some cleverly unethical free software providers actually trigger spam if you do not buy their product right away.

Now this is something you would want to avoid all the time. These are the very reasons why everyone must be clever enough when it comes to distinguishing whether certain freebies are worth taking or not. When it comes to battling spam, it is sometimes better to be alone and sure, than to go with the free and experience and awful lot of uncertainty.

Difference between Spam filters and Spam blockers

2007-08-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between spam filters and spam blockers?

Spam filters – Identifies and stops spam which carry certain key words and spam texts before it even reaches the mailbox. The problem though, with many spam filter system is that it may potentially also block emails coming from legitimate accounts. So make sure that these spam filters are installed properly. Filtering emails does not guarantee a stop to spam, but it can make your Internet activity fairly easier.Spam blockers – Identifies and stops spam based on assigned blacklist containing the spammers’ email addresses or ISP.
The downside of this is some spammers often change their ISP’s and addresses and this may not be assigned in the blacklist. You have to make sure to update your blacklist often.Whether it’s a spam filter or spam blocker, or both, it is best to monitor and identify what you need versus the features these applications offers before you install your choice into your computer.The other thing you can do to stop spam is to keep your email addresses separate and private. As most people carry a work email and a string of personal emails, use it for specific purposes only (e.g. work email addresses must strictly be for work only). Then divulge your email address only to persons you would like to exchange emails with. This move should help you stop spam by half.
Use a personal free mail service when signing up online forums, groups or filling out online subscriptions. An email address specifically for these can be regarded as a “throwaway” or a “dummy email” which could serve as a buffer between your other more important emails.
Stopping spam takes a conscious effort. Those email address have to be safeguarded by the user (you) to protect you from many of the harm that Internet use poses.

Laws For Spam Regulation

2007-07-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

Do you know what a Spam is?
A spam is an unwanted email which you receive from an unknown persons, companies or source.

WHY SPAM NEEDS TO BE REGULATED:
Spam is undesirable for several reasons: Spam mails are useless -
containing information that we would usually never need, and products
that we would even less likely purchase. Spam mails are also a headache,
as we would require deleting them to ensure that our email accounts do
not exceed the maximum permitted storage size.
Additionally, spamming results in ISPs facing slower server speeds and
degraded response times from the ISP's mail exchanger service. Last but
not the least, objectionable spam mail is sometimes well disguised and
often so worded in the header that it looks like an ordinary mail -
thereby causing quite a bit of embarrassment when pictures of unknown
semi-clad women pop up on our computer screens!
An OECD Report estimates that the "worldwide cost to Internet
subscribers of spam is in the vicinity of $ 12.5 billion a year". Not
surprisingly, several countries have enacted laws to regulate, and in
some cases prohibit, this technological 'scourge'.

INTERNATIONAL POSITION:
A. United States
Though several states in the United States already have their own
legislations regulating spam, the only enacted federal legislation in
the United States in force presently is the "Controlling the Assault of
Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003", popularly known as
the CAN-SPAM Act.

The CAN-SPAM Act, 2003
The Preamble to the Act clearly sets out its objectives:
"To regulate interstate commerce by imposing limitations and penalties
on the transmission of unsolicited commercial electronic mail via the
Internet."
The Act requires unsolicited commercial e-mail messages to be labeled
(though no standard method is prescribed) and to contain opt-out
instructions for the recipient, as well as the sender's physical
address. The Act also prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and
false headers in such messages. Interestingly, the Federal Trade
Commission, the regulatory agency with wide-ranging powers to create and
enforce a wide variety of rules under various consumer protection
legislations, is authorized to establish a "do-not-email" registry, but
not compulsorily required to make such a registry. The CAN-SPAM Act
takes effect on January 1, 2004.

State Legislations:
Several states in the United States have their own legislations such as
Washington, which had its own law regulating Spam as early as 1998.
Unlike the federal law, which only regulates spam, the Washington
legislation prohibits commercial e-mail that has false or otherwise
misleading information in the subject line. Further, it also bans
commercial e-mail that contains an invalid reply address or disguises
the transmission path. From the perspective of enforcement, the law
permits message recipients and ISP's as well as the attorney general's
office to file civil suits for compensation and punitive damages.

B. United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has been relatively less pro-active compared to other
jurisdictions, which have implemented legislations to regulate spam much
earlier.
Until recently, the only legislation in force was the Consumer
Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, which implements the EU
Directive 97/7/EC on the Protection of Consumers in respect of Distance
Contracts. Under the EU Directive, Member States have three options
while legislating: (a) provide for an opt-in clause, (b) provide for an
opt-out clause and (c) provide for self-regulation by the industry.
EC Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (2002/58/EC)
Subsequently the above principles have been extended, in the light of
new technology, to apply to unsolicited mail, phone and the Internet in
the form of implementation of the EC Directive on Privacy and Electronic
Communications (2002/58/EC). The said regulations are in force since 11
December 2003 and the new rules apply on a "technology neutral" basis.
Under UK law, any use of email, e-faxes and SMS messages for direct
marketing will require the prior consent of subscribers, who can
'opt-in' for such services. There are limited exceptions to this
requirement - such as if the electronic contact details had been
obtained in the course of the sale or negotiations for sale of product
or service to the target customer.
Another requirement under the new Regulations is that all e-marketing
messages must include a valid address to which the recipient may address
an unsubscribe request.

INDIAN REGULATORY FRAMEWORK:
There is no law presently in India, which provides for, or has been
enacted to deal with the issue of spam.
The Information Technology Act, 2000 (the "IT Act") does not contain any
provision regulating the act of 'spamming'. However, the IT Act does
regulate 'obscenity', which covers publishing, transmitting or causing
to be published in electronic form, any material which is lascivious, or
appeals to the prurient interest, etc. Considering that a large
proportion of 'spam e-mail' pertains to pornography, is it possible that
a 'spammer' may be brought under such a provision?
In any event, the wording of Section 67 is ambiguous, and it may be also
possible that an ISP may be considered liable, as it may be said to be
'transmitting' such electronic material.
In the absence of any statutory protection to check spam mails on
Internet, it may be necessary to rely on the traditional tort law
principles of 'trespass to goods' as well as the 'law of nuisance' to
address the challenges posed by spammers.
The term 'nuisance' is derived from the French word 'nuire', to do hurt,
or to annoy, and an action for nuisance arises in respect of an act
producing material injury to property or an act producing personal
discomfort.
'Trespass to goods' occurs when the unlawful disturbance of possession
of the goods, whether actual or constructive held by the plaintiffs, by
an act of the defendants causing damage to the goods.
It would seem likely that Indian courts would use existing laws of
torts, to deal with the issue of spam, until separate legislation
specifically regulating spam is enacted.

RECENT HIGH COURT ORDER:
In the first-ever judicial order in India on the issue of spam, the
Delhi High Court has restrained a party from "causing transmission of
unsolicited bulk electronic mail" to any user of the services of an
Internet Services Provider (ISP).
In the case of Tata Sons v. Amait Kumar Gupta, Justice R.C. Chopra has
passed an interim injunction against McCoy Infosystems Pvt Ltd and its
proprietors and agents from indulging in the activity of jamming the
VSNL Internet server.
A suit was instituted by Tata Sons, on behalf of VSNL, wherein it was
alleged that through the Unsolicited Bulk Commercial E-mail (UBCE),
McCoy Infosystems Pvt Ltd and the other defendants were intentionally
"tresspassing" on VSNL's property despite being black-listed for
habitual transmission of UBCE.
The plaintiffs argued that the transmission of UBCE by McCoy Infosystems
Pvt Ltd into the VSNL systems was directly responsible for denying VSNL
access to use of its own property. As such, the defendants were causing
an electronic nuisance to VSNL and breaching the terms and conditions of
the services provided by it.
It may be noted that the said interim order is in the nature of a
temporary restraint, and it may be some time until the entire court
proceedings are completed, which include submissions by all the parties
and a final hearing, before the final judgment is issued.
Nevertheless, the order of the Delhi High Court is significant -
firstly, it recognizes that spamming is a problem and needs regulation,
and secondly, in the absence of a specific law, judicial recognition
through interpretation of other laws may be necessary.
It is interesting to note that VSNL had obtained the said order on the
basis of arguments addressed under the traditional tort law principles
of trespass to goods as well as the law of nuisance.

CONCLUSION:
Though the current Indian legal regime may be ambiguous and indefinite
about the regulation of spam, it is possible that existing Indian laws
could be creatively used to provide some relief against the persons
engaging in spamming activity.
Nevertheless, the enactment of clearly defined laws and the
establishment of effective enforcement machinery may be imperative in
the longer run. Until then, the only effective remedy to fight the
onslaught of spam may be technology itself!