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FTC Goes After Housewife Dating Sites

The FTC has procured a court order to terminate operations of a website ring offering dating services featuring lonely housewives.

The FTC says that the group was in violation of many provisions of the CAN-SPAM legislation. CAN-SPAM doesn't make sending junk email illegal, but it does place certain requirements on senders. Senders of all commercial email are supposed to provide valid physical addresses and an opportunity for recipients to remove themselves from the mailing list.

The restrictions are fairly easy to understand and not difficult to comply with. Still, nearly all unsolicited email messages fail to comply. The FTC has selectively been prosecuting a few major offenders. To date, evidence that CAN-SPAM has provided effective spam blocking is not substantial.

The ring is composed of nearly 200 different sites. The sites claimed to offer members the opportunity to "hook-up" with housewives willing to engage in extramarital affairs. There was no indication if the services offered were in fact real. Even if they are, it would seem members are asking for trouble. The apparent popularity of such services seems to be an extension of the MILF phenomena.

The sites involved disproportionately used .BIZ and .INFO domains. Due to low registration costs and high availability, these domains are frequently used by spammers. Many spam filters recognize this, and are more likely to filter such messages. If you're considering starting a reputable website, spend the extra $2.95 and get a .COM domain name.

SpamButcher can be used for Outlook spam control as well as with most other popular mail programs.

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