US politicians slated for spam tactics

Report criticises leaders for election-pushing mass mail campaigns.

A report from Sophos has criticised the behaviour of both major US political parties, after numerous emails soliciting support in the US mid-term elections were received by their network of spam traps.

The report accuses both the Republican and Democratic parties of 'adding to the spam problem' with their campaigns, released in the days leading up to the recent elections. It also states that although the emails are not classed as spam under US law, as political parties are immune from the powers of the CAN-SPAM act, the addresses used were clearly not assigned to legitimate US voters and were not signed up to any mailing lists, making the campaigns seem identical to any other mass marketing bombardment.

'We've seen some political junk mail here at Virus Bulletin too,' said John Hawes, Technical Consultant at Virus Bulletin. 'I've had messages calling me 'Dear fellow Philadelphian', but I'm sure I wouldn't be allowed to vote there. People in responsibility should see that this sort of behaviour puts them in a very bad light. We can't hope to put a stop to spam through the law if lawmakers are sending it themselves.'

The full release from Sophos can be found here.

09 November 2006

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