Fighting malware and spam

DIY do not spam

Chicago businessman takes matters into his own hands

Chicago businessman Rocky Mosele has created his own 'do not spam' list. Fed up of the disruptive effect spam was having on his own business, Rocky consulted with attorneys and software engineers to come up with www.ethicalemail.com - a website on which visitors can register their email address to be added to a 'do not contact' database.

Mosele's plan is to deliver the database of names and email addresses to some of the email houses that are responsible for sending bulk email - according to the law, the email houses will have 10 days to remove those email addresses from their databases.

Only a couple of months ago, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning about a website that claimed to offer a similar service, using language and design that resembled the FTC's National Do Not Call Registry. The FTC warned that the site could be part of a scam to trick consumers into disclosing their email address or other sensitive personal information.

The FTC advised consumers not to submit their email addresses or any other personal information to any site claiming to be a 'National Do Not E-mail Registry'.

The creation, by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), of a 'do not spam' registry was recommended by the CAN-SPAM act, although the idea was not welcomed by the FTC at the time, since it did not believe such a list could be secured satisfactorily.

Currently the FTC is studying the feasibility of creating a national 'do not spam' registry, and is expected to issue a report later this month.

2 June 2004

Tags: virus