Ethical Analysis on Spam

Will it ever stop?

By: Amanda Yoch

Overview of Spam Definition

submitting the same message to a large group of individuals in an effort to force the message onto people who would otherwise choose not to receive this message

Three main components to all types of spam: anonymity: the sender’s identity and address are

concealed mass mailing: spam email is sent to a large number of

recipients and in high quantities unsolicited: the individuals receiving spam would

otherwise not have opted to receive it

How Common is Spam? Spam is very common, with most if not all

individuals receiving spam email at some point in their Internet-using lives

The effectiveness of spam is not comparable Only 14% of people read the spam they receive,

with a mere 4% of individuals buying products from spam messages

Most Common Products Advertised E-Mail Spam by

Category: Products: 25%

Financial: 20%Adult: 19%Scams: 9%Health: 7%Internet: 7%Leisure: 6%Spiritual: 4%Other: 3%

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 Four Main Provisions:

False and misleading header information is banned Deceptive subject lines are prohibited Opt-out methods must be provided Commercial email must be identified as an advertisement

and it must include the sender's valid physical postal address

Receivers must be warned of sexually explicit material

Current Issues and Concerns of Spam

Avoid Spam Video Link

Cost of spam Spam costs businesses

$20.5 billion annually in decreased productivity as well as in technical expenses

Spam inconvenience Spam accounts for 14.5

billion messages globally per day. In other words, spam makes up 45% of all emails

Financial risks of spam Identity theft

Alternate Viewpoint on Spam Spam is beneficial to marketing companies

because people are still clicking on the links. People get sucked into a spam e-mail (a lot of times without even knowing).

Companies take advantage of naïve consumers, especially the older generation and people who are uneducated about spam and what spam is.

Spam Recommendations An organization should comply with spam laws. Companies should cut down on the number of

spam e-mails they send. The more they send, the more someone can tell it is spam, thus ignore.

Companies can better use spam by making the e-mails more professional and error-free. Many times you can distinguish between what is spam and what is not because of grammar mistakes and misspellings.

Did You Know? 86% of email addresses

posted on websites are used by spammers to send unsolicited emails.

63% of all "Remove me from your list" requests are not honored.

Spam accounted for 80% of all e-mail received in 2004, up from 62% in 2003.

Extra: Cell Phone Spam Video Link

Website References http://www.spamlaws.com/ http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/

0,1000000308,2138099,00.htm http://www.elsop.com/wrc/nospam.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam http://www.spambouncer.org/aboutspam/

index.shtml http://www.spam-filter-review.com