anti-spam strategies

Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Wed, 30 Sep 1998 13:04:48 -0400

As you all probably know, the list has been receiving a lot of spam over the last few months. The spammers are also apparently sending the same messages to individual list members. I have noticed that almost all of the recent spams have included email addresses in the text of the message which are on the juno.com servers. One reason why so many spammers use services like juno is that it is easy to set up an email account, and juno's email is also free in many areas of the country, and pretty cheap in others.

I have contacted juno's 'postmaster' several times in response, but always get canned automated responses, and there seems to be no actions being taken to limit spammers from using juno servers. In response to this, I've started taking two strategies which I suggest others on the list do as well in hopes of finally getting some sort of respose to remedy the situation. They are based on the idea that since juno is doing nothing to prevent spammers from using accounts with them for spamming, that juno is in collusion with spammers who engage in theft of electronic services (i.e. wasting my time and bandwidth). Considering the volume of this theft, Juno can fall under the RICO Act statutes.

Strategy 1: Charge fees: As some on the list may know, I charge a $250.00 fee for processing unsolicited commercial email messages. Every time I receive a spam which uses a juno account in the body of the message as a response email address, I send a bill to juno's postmaster for $250.00. Their account balance is now
$1500.00. I've given them three days to refuse charges on each instance, and 30
 days to pay the charges, and will impose a 18.5% finance charge for balances due over 30 days.

Strategy 2: I warn juno in each message that they are in violation of RICO Act statues by colluding with perpetrators of theft of electronic services. Apparently, there are means of civil redress under the RICO Act, where a person or persons can sue violators of the RICO Act. I am currently researching what it would take to file a class action lawsuit against juno.com on these grounds. Anyone here is welcome to become in volved in this effort. If you are interested in getting in on this lawsuit, respond to me at: rico-lawsuit@lorrey.com. Please provide a zip file with text copies of all spam messages you have received related to juno.com to add to the evidence files.

Thanks,
Mike Lorrey