Spam: Lawlessness in Cyberspace - How Many Infractions are in Your Inbox?

Today I got about 265 pieces of spam email. Fortunately, my anti-spam email application caught about 255 of them. Not quite a perfect performance, but enough to make email workable.

Out of those 265 messages, I suspect nearly everyone breaks some aspect of anti-spam law as it currently stands. With CAN-SPAM, these aren't minor violations. In theory, each message could cost someone thousands of dollars in fines.

In practice, a few dozen "spam kings" have been trotted out for trial. Most spammers are distinctly under the rader.

More concerning, some of these messages include my home address. The mortgage spammers know exactly who they're dealing with. It wouldn't surprise me if some of them even knew about how much my house is worth, and pitch that fact to their customers.

I'm having trouble thinking of another case where so much illegal activity occurs, with so little enforcement. Minor traffic infractions come to mind, but the theoretical penalties aren't nearly as significant.

There are likely a number of reasons for this. For one, a large portion of law aimed at spam control is federal. It's difficult to get the government in general to do anything, but the federal government moves that much more slowly. Another is the actual difficulty of hunting the responsible parties down. In many situations the company advertising in the spam isn't actually the one sending the spam. The law can get somewhat unclear in these cases.

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