Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail, Spam and Terrorism; An Ethical
Discussion
- Vinod
Scaria
Center
for Cybermedicine and Internet Research
Correspondence: Perumcheril 33/4711,
Malaparamba, Calicut 673009 Kerala, India
E-Mail: vinodscaria@yahoo.co.in
Keywords: Internet, Spam, Ethics, Terrorism, Unsolicited
commercial Mail, Case studies,
Introduction
"Spam is the result a lack of ethics
and integrity in regards to promotional activities on the internet. It's not a
question of whether or not you get caught. It's a question of maintaining your
ethics and integrity while still engaging in promotion, marketing and
advertising." --Richard Lowe
Internet has been perhaps the most important discovery humankind
made in the last century. Nothing else had its impact on our day-to-day lives.
Even though Spam is commonly used in association with E-Mail, it had its origin
even before the advent of E-mails. It actually denoted sending multiple posts
to newsgroups in order to flood them with messages or to involve in cross
posting the same message in a number of newsgroups simultaneously.
It is thought that
the term originated from a popular Monty Python comedy sketch about spam [which
is a popular pork product]
What Exactly is Spam?
á
Unsolicited emails to a mass audience.
á
Cross posting commercial email to multiple newsgroups [News groups
are websites where you could post your news/ comments eg: http://www.groups.google.com
on different subject areas] or email lists [E-Mail lists are e-mail based
discussion forums where multiple individuals collaborate via e-mail.]
á
Internet based telemarketing
á
Sending unsolicited messages to chat and instant messaging
services
á
Attempting to fool search engines through massive or fraudulent
submissions. [1]
Problem Description
1] Some Case studies
Case 1: An automatically generated reply from one e-mail address
read:
|
Dear colleague, I apologize for the inconvenience - say thank you to all
these @#$&*! spammers. |
This is just a glimpse of what is happening
around us. Spam, and unsolicited Commercial Mails (UCEs) are making people
insane by making their inboxes turn just into junkyards. This also brings forth hitherto unrecognized
dilemmas in human lives also.
A physician who is in specific need of a
particular information detrimental for his patient, like a copy of an article
his colleague had promised to E-mail him would just turn insane to find his
mailbox filled with UCEs- ranging from pills that enlarge certain body parts or
shrink you to your bones in weeks to sale of inkjet cartridges, university
degrees without actually studying and money launders and scams.
This also brings to light the extreme
possibility of affection of Human lives due to Spam.
Case 2: a quote of message sent out in response to a query
regarding junk mails
|
"...........My domain <URL Removed to maintain privacy> is under attack
by someone who doesn't like my MILITANT, PUBLIC ANTI-SPAM stance. To date,
their actions have included sending apparently several thousand e-mail
messages, forged showing my name as the sender. In addition, this same party
or someone working with them conducted a denial-of-service attack on our
system last night, 14 May. See < URL removed>, including
system logs clearly showing |
This is just a glimpse of how spammers
operate. They forge names and Ids of respected personalities and send out bulk
mail- keeping themselves behind the veils. There are also many culprits who
forge reply addresses of their business enemies [often doing ethical business]
in their mails and let the angry, insane people reply back and thus terrorizing
the Internet server resources of that company.
2] Spam: the actual incidence
The actual incidence of spam has not been
well quantified. The fact is that it varies widely from commercial to personal
accounts. Though it is estimated that it accounts for 20-30% roughly, our own
studies [unpublished] estimate that it ranges from 5% for new
internet users and 45% for personal E-mails of ordinary users who have been
using the internet for more than a year to close to 60% in professionals
actively engaged in discussions over the Internet and close to 67% for
commercial companies.
This is much higher than any estimates
published so far. The higher values were perhaps because we had studied e-mail
accounts, which had no spam blocking utilities- in a venture to identify the
trend in an unobtrusive setting.
3] Internet Spam: Linguistics
The following note was derived from a post on the Yahoo
Club:AntiSpam [2] and truly expresses what the spammers really mean.
Perhaps anybody who has experienced the worst of spam
would agree to the last word.of the note. The most interesting
part is that many of the spammers provide a snail mail address in which you are
expected to contact to unsubscribe from (?) their service!!!
|
Spamish |
English |
|
To be removed |
To confirm that we found a live address |
|
This is not spam |
This is spam |
|
You requested |
We hope you will believe that because we have a bridge to sell |
|
IMPORTANT! |
Does the word 'bull' have a meaning to you? |
|
Enter your credit card number here |
Sucker! |
|
Enter your phone number here |
Sucker! |
4] The cost of spam
Last year the United States Federal Trade commission,
partnering with 12 Federal states embarked on a massive program to curb the
menace of spam by setting up a huge database and collecting evidence related to
spammers. [3]
Spam is also costing people huge amounts of money. The
Ferris Research report puts the cost of spam to US businesses at around $8.9
billion a year; and, to European businesses (where junk is less rampant) at
$2.5 billion [4]
Ethics
of Spam
There are varying opinions on the ethical aspects of
UCEs, while some feel Spam is to be condemned [5] with all the force given the
annoyance and difficulty it causes, some others feel that spam is a mere
extension of direct marketing on the Internet [6], while others take a
middle-man approach saying it is up to the end-user to decide what is Spam, and
what is not [7][8].
There is no doubt that the majority of users condemn
spam [9] and a majority of individuals feel that spam should be eliminated at
any cost. But in an anarchic world on the Internet, where laws cannot be
implemented as in a geographic entity, it is simply nonsense believing someone
would somehow get rid of it.
Is Spam Terrorism?
Terrorism=use of violence or intimidation
Terrorise= fill with terror by threats or
acts of violence
[Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of
Current English]
At least some regard spam as a sort of terrorism. Spam
can indeed be regarded as terrorism. Though some regard it as a lighter form of
terrorism [10], while others equate spammers to real world terrorists [11].
Holding at ransom some close to 900 million Internet users is something that
can be equated to Terrorism in every sort. Apart from costing them money and
time, they also have the potential to create havoc with lives either in the
form of directly influencing them by fraudulent practices [including marketing
of drugs often with no proved efficacy] or indirectly by hampering proper functioning
of caregivers including physicians and other medical professionals.
Discussion
This paper indents to bring to light the hitherto
unheard potential of Internet spam to affect lives of people. For this single
reason, spam may be considered as an anti human and a serious flaw in Ethical
conduct and use of resources intended for the general progress of mankind,
especially the upliftment of downtrodden classes. The Huge amount of money
earmarked on a yearly basis, which is growing each year is beyond what any
growing economy can sustain. This money was better utilized for modernization
of healthcare facilities and provide food and housing for the poor people.
It is also sad to note that emerging economies like the
Asian economies are also finding it hard to protect themselves adequately from
the threat of Internet terrorism. This means more and more money that ought to
have been spent for other developmental projects needs to be diverted to
sustain their hard earned assets especially in the Information Technology
arena.
I hope that this paper would stimulate more research
into this field and stimulate many to come up with evidence related to how
Internet directly affects Human lives adversely.
References
1] The Innocent Can Of Spam http://www.internet-tips.net/Email/SPAM.htm
2] Yahoo Club: AntiSpam URL: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/antispam
3] FTC puts spam on target list ; The
Washington Times :November 14, 2002: http://www.washtimes.com/business/20021114-92303950.htm
4] QuiteATake.com Deepak Mankar
Mumbai, January
11
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_136024,00030007.htm
5] Spam Terrorism ;From Newspoem .URL: http://www.newspoetry.com/2002/1110.html
6] The ethics of
spam
http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2001/0402gibbs.html
7] Spam: What's in a
name? Carlton
Vogt http://archive. infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/02/02/010202opethics.xml
8] Is It Spam or Is It E-Mail Direct Marketing?
By John Gaffney, January 21, 2002
http://www.business2.com/articles/web/0,1653,37235|2,00.html
9] WitchVox Survey #2 - Pagan Spam
http://www.witchvox.com/surveys/pagan_spam_results1.html
10] [SC-Help] SPAM is a kind of terrorism
[an archived message at the spamcop discussion list] URL: http://news.spamcop.net/pipermail/spamcop-help/2001-October/016336.html
11] Time to stamp out spam 'terrorism' The
Daily Star Online Full Text URL: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/28_03_03_b.asp
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