New law to can spam making little headway

Most local and national Internet service providers and users say they haven't seen much of a decrease in the number of junk e-mails hitting their inboxes, maintaining that the new federal anti-spam laws that went into effect Jan. 1 aren't severe enough.

"Some examples need to be made out of them," said Randy Black, a tech support technician with Show Me Net, which has 3,500 local customers. "If the people who did this realized it was going to cost them, they'd stop."

Spam is the nickname for the vast array of often unwanted e-mail that ranges from sexually explicit messages to Viagra promotions to investment schemes.

In the first few weeks that the law took effect, national spam-filtering company Brightmail Inc. flagged 58 percent of incoming e-mail as spam, which is no different from December. And America Online saw a 10 percent jump in spam from overseas, possibly from spammers trying to evade U.S. law.

"Most of it comes from overseas," Black said. "And 90 to 95 percent of all our e-mail is still spam."

In December, President Bush signed the CAN-SPAM Act into law, and it took effect Jan. 1. CAN-SPAM requires that spam e-mail include a working return e-mail address, a valid postal address for the sending company, a working opt-out mechanism and a relevant subject line. The law also directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to study setting up a national do-not-spam list, similar to the national do-not-call telemarketing list now in effect.

The new law authorizes the FTC and the states' attorneys general to enforce its provisions. The penalties call for jail time and civil fines of up to $2 million.

Despite all the naysayers, at least one e-mail user, Bruce Marrs, says his company has seen a significant drop in spam.

"It's been a real substantial improvement," said Marrs, who is president of Cairo Marine Service in Cape Girardeau which inspects river cranes, among other things. "I'd say we used to get sometimes maybe 50 spams a day. Now it's down to five."

But his company appears to be in the minority.

Chang Law, Internet supervisor with Big River Telephone in Cape Girardeau, has seen no change in the number of spam e-mails he's monitored.

"I still get 150 a day," he said. "If I don't check it, it can max me out."

Chang said he doesn't think the new law is working very well.

"The thing is, unless they track where all this e-mail is coming from, you're not going to be able to stop it," he said. "You have to go to the source and stop trying to hit the middle man. Until you do that, I don't think the new law is going to help a whole lot."

Link Electronics owner Bob Henson agrees.

"It hasn't cut back at all," he said Wednesday. "I still get between 200 and 300 e-mails a day and maybe two or three are legitimate."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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