CAN-SPAM Prosecutions Continue to Trickle In

This is just the latest in a round of legal actions taken by the FTC utilizing the CAN-SPAM act. These prosecutions have been slow in coming, however they are now happening. There is distinctly more enforcement activity now than there was in the first year of CAN-SPAM being law.

Efforts to track spam levels since the passage of CAN-SPAM have generally shown a lack of impact. However, with enforcement efforts coming into full swing recently, there may still be some hope for it making a difference.

Knocking off the higher profile spammers can certainly help combat junk messages. At certain points in time, a few individuals were responsible for a large portion of spam on the internet. Whether or not this is still the case is unclear.

Recent trends have shown large portions of spam being sent by zombies; controlled by vast numbers of individuals participating in various affiliate programs. The use of zombie systems has confounded certain anti-spam email system technologies such as blacklists.

CAN-SPAM may however, only force the spam market to be diversified amongst smaller players. It could also push spam senders off-shore - where there simply isn't any jurisdiction for legal action. To date, there is no international law against spam.

With the ever growing problem of junk email, many users have adopted secondary methods of communicating with friends and colleagues. Examples include instant messaging and blogs. Unfortunately, both these mediums have also proven prone to their own forms of spam.