Anti Spam Software & Internet Filters Blog - Securence

It's a bull market for stock spam

The volume of stock scam spam has risen, posing a new threat to investors, warns a new study

Though traditional spam categories -- medication, mortgage and pornography -- continue to dominate, new ones such as stock scams are growing, according to the study, which covered the first six months of 2005.

Medications, including unbranded versions of Viagra, accounted for 40 percent of all spam traffic, the study said. This was followed by mortgages at 11 percent and porn at 9.5 percent. Stock-related spam came in fourth place at 8.5 percent of the total spam traffic. The volume of "pump-and-dump" stock scam e-mail has increased at an average rate of 10 percent per month.

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Court deals blow to dating-service spammer

An online dating service does not have the right to blast unsolicited e-mail at thousands of University of Texas e-mail addresses, a federal appeals court ruled.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that the university did not run afoul of federal law or the U.S. Constitution when blocking a torrent of spam from White Buffalo Ventures' LonghornSingles.com site.

The University of Texas may "implement the Regents' Rules without violating" spammers' rights, a three-judge panel unanimously concluded.

White Buffalo, an Austin, Texas, start-up that boasts of making "a ton of moolah" by promoting relationship-based Web sites, began its bulk e-mail campaign in February 2003 by filing a freedom of information request that gave it nearly all the university's e-mail addresses. Two months later, it began deluging the school's servers with commercial solicitations--and had its Internet addresses blocked after refusing to stop when asked.

Most spammers might halt their efforts at that point, but White Buffalo was unusually determined. It filed a lawsuit against the University of Texas and sought a court injunction protecting what amounted to a right to spam--citing both the federal Can-Spam Act and the First Amendment, which broadly limits a government university's ability to restrict free speech.

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Tags: spam, texas, austin, white buffalo, university

FTC: Top Retailers Comply With CAN-SPAM Opt-Out

A Federal Trade Commission survey of top online merchants released yesterday found that most were complying with provisions in the CAN-SPAM Act requiring them to honor consumer opt-out requests.

The FTC developed a list of 100 top online retailers, then created three e-mail addresses. The agency registered each address to receive e-mail promotions, offers and newsletters from each of the 100 retailers.

After monitoring the three e-mail addresses for six weeks, the FTC sent opt-out messages to each retailer from each address. According to the FTC, 89 percent ceased e-mails to all three addresses, while 93 percent stopped e-mailing at least some of the accounts.

All the merchants complied with the CAN-SPAM requirement to clearly display opt-out notices in outbound marketing e-mails, the FTC said.

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Tags:  anti-spam, antispam, spam