 Appearances can be deceiving... With so many anti-Spam service companies out there, why do we continue to be plagued by the problem of Spam? After all, shouldn't things be getting better and better as a result of the great services they offer? One would think so. However, what the average person doesn't realize is that these self-proclaimed "Anti-Spam" services are in fact perpetuating the problem! Think about it... if these companies were successful in eliminating Spam as they propose they do, they would all be out of a job! They would not be able to charge consumers and ISP's alike to subscribe to their various blacklists and email services. Eliminating Spam would actually put these companies out of business! But, I digress... let's start out by first defining who we are talking about here. Many people are totally unaware of the anti-Spam industry. There is a whole slew of companies out there who have crowned themselves as experts on dealing with the issue of Spam. However, there has been no effective involvement from any government agency to regulate these companies, their policies and tactics, or otherwise monitor the inherent conflict of interest that exists between their own profits and the services they provide. They maintain lists of IP addresses that are determined to be used by Spammers to send out unsolicited email. They then provide these lists to ISP's, allowing them to filter incoming email to their customers by blocking email that comes from one of these Spam IP addresses. There are lots of these companies out there. Click here to see a list of some of the common ones. For the purpose of discussion, we will focus on a single example: SpamCop.net. SpamCop was one of the early adopters of the anti-Spam extortion scheme and today is regarded as one of the top Spam reporting services online. As you will see below, there are contradictions everywhere between what SpamCop says it stands for and the reality of how their scam is operated. The extortion tactic is actually quite simple: 1) Establish a database of "known" IP addresses used by Spammers to send junk email. This database is contributed to by various sources. Anyone can forward Spam to SpamCop and after they deem that it is indeed Spam it is added to the database. SpamCop also uses a number of "Spam Traps" or email addresses that they submit to various submission systems (and never verify or Opt-in) so that any mail sent to these addresses is determined to be Spam.2) Provide ISP's access to this database so that they can filter/block Spam. This is a win-win situation for the ISP and SpamCop: The ISP gets a free tool to help them eliminate a lot of the Spam that is being sent to their customers. SpamCop increases their "controlling interest" on mail delivery (i.e. the more ISP's that use SpamCop, the more influence their service has on email delivery worldwide.) This service does nothing to actually stop or prevent Spam. It is simply a "reactive" way of dealing with the problem. The service itself actually becomes more and more valuable as the amount of online Spam grows.3) Sell consumers (or marketing companies) SpamCop email accounts. And the truth comes to light... This is where the money is made. As a result of the increasing Spam problem now there is a miraculous answer! "Just pay for our email service and everything will be alright..." <gag!><choke!><puke!>As you can see, preserving the problem of Spam is inherently a priority for any of these types of "Anti-Spam" companies. All of the services they sell rely on the fact that Spam exists and is a permanent problem. The last thing they want to do is actually solve the problem because that will put them out of business! Worse yet is the fact that if you read the propaganda put forth on the SpamCop web site, it all sounds great! They say all of the right things. However, their enforcement is much more arbitrary and subject to personal opinion. For example, it is quite common for a legitimate marketing company to get listed in SpamCop as a result of a single verification email their system sends out. When challenged, a common SpamCop response is that the verification email did not use an accepted format (e.g. maybe it included "too much" marketing copy or did not properly identify itself as a verification email). Note that all of these issues are totally subjective to the whims of the "Anti-Spam" company, not any type of universally agreed upon standard. In response, the marketing company might take one of SpamCop's own verification emails that get sent out when you subscribe to one of their services and use the exact same template as they do in order to fall at the knees of this abusive giant and beg for them to remove the company's IP address from their blacklist. SpamCop may agree to do so. However, a few days or weeks later the exact same problem may appear again. When confronted again, SpamCop may or may not agree to take you off their list. The more times this happens, the worse your "rating" or "score" becomes even if you followed their rules exactly... even if you use their exact verification emails! To make matters worse, there is an open and obvious bias by the Zealots and their supporters to lash out and attack virtually all types of commercial email. The following was taken from the online forum at SpamCop.net and is indicative of the attitude often taken against virtually all types of email: Rule #1: Spammers lie. Russel's Admonition: Always assume that there is a measurable chance that the entity you are dealing with is a Spammer.Rule #2: If a Spammer seems to be telling the truth, see Rule #1. Crissman's Corollary: A Spammer, when caught, blames his victims.Rule #3: Spammers are stupid. Krueger's Corollary: Spammer lies are really stupid.This is the intellectual material offered by the anti-Spam community to address the problem of Spam... If it were up to them we would end up ultimately eliminating virtually every type of email on the Internet! You see, that's the problem. They define the rules. They beat up honest marketing companies with them whenever they feel like it. They change the rules anytime they want. They control what basically amounts to your "credit score" and can damage it at any time. They control what mail gets delivered through your ISP and what doesn't. They sell you services that "make sure you won't have to deal with this problem". They are not regulated in any way. Now, to be fair... they are not doing anything illegal. Unethical, maybe... Slimy and devious? Almost certainly. But, that takes me to my main point: The world needs an agreed upon standard policy for regulating email solicitations. An accepted standard is needed that will both protect the rights and privacy of everyone online as well as clearly outline the "rules" for sending any type of email that could otherwise be considered Spam. Doing so will not immediately eliminate Spam, but it will allow legal action to proceed faster in many instances which means the problem will begin to swing under control. Clear regulations will also make it much easier to determine when Spam has actually occurred so that Spammers can be punished much more quickly and effectively. Companies like SpamCop should be allowed to continue to go about their business. What needs to change is their ability to be both judge and jury! Even assuming that these companies all started at some point with the best of intentions, corruption is inevitable due to the unavoidable conflict of interest. Unregulated organizations cannot be allowed to determine what is and what is not Spam (thus giving them control to decide what email will and will not be delivered to your mail box), when at the same time they are making their money by selling a service that you end up "having to have" if you want to send and receive email. Folks, that's called extortion! It is happening right now under your nose. So, how do we fix all of this? The first step is surprisingly simple: define the globally accepted standard for permission based email marketing. In doing so the definition of Spam will also be clarified. Once this occurs, and the Anti-Spam Zealots are finally forced to give up their reign as dictators, the services they offer for Spam filtering will start becoming more and more effective. Equally important is that honest, ethical online marketing companies that follow the rules will no longer be punished or extorted by the Zealots. Marketing companies that currently don't follow the rules will start to since it will finally become clear what the rules actually are. It's time to embrace the power of the "Force". The Force of Verified & Verifiable email marketing systems. Click the link to read more... |
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