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The State Of Spam: Page 7 of 8


"You'd think that voting against spam would be like voting in favor of Mom and apple pie...but it's not." —John C. Mozena, CAUCE U.S.


A Bleak Outlook
The constant back and forth between spammers and the programmers trying to stop them seems to have no end. Spammers have even called in to AOL's Postmaster (a team that works with e-mailers to be sure their mailings do not constitute spam), posing as legitimate mailers and asking about the company's practices, according to Jones.

"You can't just put a spam rule in place and expect it to work forever," Jones says. "If we weren't constantly adjusting those rules we wouldn't be able to block as much because the spammers adapt quickly."

So what's the next step in stopping spammers? Not everyone believes more spam-fighting software is the answer. "The technological cat-and-mouse game does little to solve the problem; rather, it just masks it," says Geist, who would like to see more international cooperation between law enforcement and governments.

It's unlikely that any help will arrive soon in the form of tougher legislation. "There isn't the outcry that there was a few years ago, telling legislators to get this done," says CAUCE's Mozena. His organization has pushed for state legislators in Michigan to make it illegal to send spam to any computer network owned by a governmental or educational entity that is supported by taxpayers, but interest is tepid.

With no public outcry against spam today, legislators are more concerned with identity theft. "You'd think that voting against spam would be like voting in favor of Mom and apple pie," Mozena says. "You'd think that would be a slam dunk legally and politically, but it's not."