Spam: Firms face uphill battle

2004-03-17 07:40

New York - The battle against spam has shifted into high gear with a new US law giving some teeth to those fighting it, but analysts remain sceptical about the prospects of eradicating the plague of unwanted e-mail.

Earlier this month, four of the largest US-based e-mail providers announced a series of lawsuits under the new "CAN-SPAM" act that went into effect on January 1.

The six lawsuits target those responsible for hundreds of millions of e-mails for get-rich-quick schemes, prescription drugs, pornography and other pitches, according to the firms, Microsoft, Yahoo, America Online and EarthLink.

But analysts say that despite the legal action, it will be difficult to cut spam, which according to various surveys accounted for between 62 and 78% of all e-mail messages.

"The lawsuits are probably a good idea although I don't think they will have a lot of impact," said Michael Osterman of Osterman Research.

Outside the US

"They should be effective to stop the highest profile spammers but the smallest ones will not pay attention to the laws."

Osterman said that despite the new US law - which provides tougher penalties for spam and new requirements for e-mail messages - it remains hard to crack down on spammers outside the United States.

Laura Koetzle at Forrester Research said one problem is that spam is so lucrative because money can be made with only a tiny percentage of successful responses.

"The problem with spam is that it essentially costs nothing to send if you hijack somebody else's network," she said.

For spammers, the process is like going to the post office and "using somebody else's stamps", she added.

Koetzle said the goal of the US law, by imposing stiff penalties on spammers, "is to rebalance the cost in order that the persons exhibiting bad manners pay the cost".

Two-year window

A recent EU study estimated that the worldwide cost to internet subscribers of spam is around $12.4bn a year, not least because of hours lost deleting such messages from e-mail in-boxes.

Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates has promised to eradicate the spam problem within two years.

Last month Microsoft announced a series of plans and industry partnerships to improve internet security and to curb spam with a system to verify the identities of e-mail senders.

Mark Sunner of the security firm MessageLabs, said the latest legal effort "is definitely a step in the right direction ... If these suits prove successful, they will mostly likely act as a deterrent for the less technically sophisticated spammers who are unable to take steps to cover their tracks."

But Sunner added that "it remains to be seen how many spammers go legit or move their operations offshore. We continue to believe that laws and lawsuits are tactics in the war against spam but not silver bullets. To truly win the war, they must combine with technology, user behaviour and other deterrents aimed at driving the illegal spammers out of business."

- AFP