surely there is a law against this stuff? after all, if it came through the post, you would call the Gardai in,
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There is no law to prevent sending adult pornography via email. However, child pornography is a different matter.
SPAM is a major problem for many companies and there is a law in Ireland. The provisions of Statutory Instrument 535 of 2003 [European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services)(Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 2003] which took effect on November 6th 2003. Since that date, the sending of unsolicited electronic communications from within the Republic of Ireland for the purpose of direct marketing has, in certain situations, been an offence. This is punishable by the offender being fined up to €3,000 per email. More info available from the Data Protection web site [broken link removed]
However the above law only applies to those sending SPAM from within Ireland. As most SPAM comes from the US this law has little impact. There are two cases pending by the Data Protection Commisioner against companies sending SMS SPAM- from the Irish Examier "[broken link removed]
As Clubman also pointed out there are numerous packages available to prevent SPAM. Some are more effective than others and range in terms of functionality, costs and ease of use. If your company decides to deploy a solution it needs to take into effect how much overhead this will place on the company. This will be from the point of view of administering the system and dealing with legitimate emails being classified as SPAM.
There are numerous ways to get on a SPAMmers list and you do not necessarily have to visit pornography sites to get on the list. As someone pointed out earlier accusing colleagues without hard evidence is very shaky ground to be on.
Here is some information on SPAM that I have collated over the years
What is SPAM?
SPAM emails are Unsolicited Emails or bulk emails used to promote material that is very often not wanted or applicable to the recipient. The content of SPAM emails can also be immoral, illegal and offensive.
How did my email address get on spammer’s list?
Your email address can get on spammers’ mailing lists by several routes.
(1) The most common is posting a reply to a newsgroup on an Internet website.
(2) Spammers also use automated programs that crawl through websites and newsgroups harvesting anything that looks like a valid email address.
(3) Another common method is by people subscribing to email lists or filling in forms on websites that do not have proper privacy policies in place.
(4) Many spammers also have automated programs that guess the email address of the recipient.
(5) Finally there is a lucrative market where spammers exchange and sell their list of email addresses to each other. A CD with millions of addresses can be bought for $10
Can’t I simply unsubscribe to the email to stop receiving SPAM?
Never reply to a spam email, even to unsubscribe, as this simply confirms that your email address is an active address and more spam will subsequently be sent
How do I reduce the amount of SPAM I am receiving?
To following steps can help reduce the amount of SPAM you receive;
(1) Never reply to a spam email, even to unsubscribe, as this simply confirms that your email address is an active address and more spam will subsequently be sent.
(2) Never open a spam email. These emails often have hidden scripts or programs in them that acknowledge back to the spammer that your address is active and real.
(3) Never post your real email address on an online web site or bulleting board. People who send SPAM scour these sites to collect legitimate email addresses. If you do have to include your email address, try using the format “youraddress at somewhere.com” rather than “youraddress@somewhere.com.”
(4) When filling in any form on the Internet read very carefully the conditions upon which your personal information, such as your email address, will be used. Ensure that you read carefully the website’s privacy policy and make sure to check or uncheck the boxes that allow emails to be sent to you.
(5) Use a filtering solution to prevent spam from reaching your mail server. This will reduce the amount of spam that the users get and also reduce the overhead on your network and email system
Is it illegal to send SPAM?
The Irish minister for communications, Dermot Ahern, recently introduced new legislation to help deal with SPAM. Under this legislation individuals must opt-in, or agree to receive, marketing emails from companies, while marketing emails to businesses must be as a result of a pre-existing relationship. This in effect means that people receive emails only from companies that they want to receive emails from. Any organisation breaking this new law can be fined up to €3,000.00 per unsolicited email message sent.
While this is a positive step towards eliminating SPAM, there is still a long way to go. The above legislation only applies to emails originating from addresses within the EU. As the large majority of SPAM is sent from addresses in the United States and Asia, the impact this legislation will have on SPAM from those sources will be negligible
How big is the SPAM problem?
The SPAM problem is quite large and is growing larger each day. Recent surveys by the Gartner Group indicate that SPAM emails can account for up to 50% of emails, which in effect means that 50% of your email traffic could be SPAM.
Does SPAM pose any risk to my business?
SPAM emails are becoming a major threat to businesses as they clog up expensive Internet and network connections with unnecessary traffic and expose recipients to unwanted and indeed unsavoury content. Each SPAM message has to be processed by your network and your mail server, this adds costs and overheads to the running of your network. The content in SPAM emails is often of unsavoury content and can expose your business to litigation by employees for sexual harassment or criminal proceedings if the SPAM emails contains illegal content, such as child pornography. There is also the productivity issue as employees sort and deal with the deluge of unwanted email in their inboxes and the invariably lost legitimate email accidentally deleted when dealing with SPAM.
Recently, it has been discovered that SPAM emails are also being used to transport computer viruses and spyware (software that secretly collects personal information and sends it back to a third party), which pose a threat to the stability and security of your business.
Why can’t the computers that spammer’s use be simply prevented from connecting to the Internet?
The people who send SPAM emails are constantly adopting to ensure they can remain in business. Many use ISPs and servers in countries where there is very weak or no legislation in against sending SPAM. They also exploit unprotected email servers to send SPAM on behalf of the spammer. Recent computer viruses install software on the infected PC to enable the PC, without the owner knowing, to be used to send SPAM. According to an article in USA Today, the going price to rent a network of 20,000 PCs infected with this type of virus is $2,000 to $3,000.
How much does SPAM cost my business?
SPAM impacts the bottom line for your business in a number of ways. Firstly the cost to your business of downloading storing and backing up SPAM has to be taken into account. A Gartner Survey estimates that 50% of all email traffic is SPAM, this means that 50% of the money your business spends on bandwidth for email, storage for email and processing of email is being spent so that you can receive SPAM.
There is also the loss of productivity to take into account. On a per employee basis, if the employee if on an average salary of €27,500 per year and they receive up to 30 emails a day with each SPAM email taking 2 seconds to be dealt with. This translates into an annual cost per employee of €57. For a company with 100 employees the annual cost due to SPAM in lost productivity alone would be €5,700.
Why is SPAM called SPAM?
Spam is a tinned meat product, so what is the connection with the electronic version of SPAM? Legend has it that the term SPAM comes from a comedy sketch in the British TV comedy series, Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The sketch shows a waitress in a restaurant listing the various menu dishes containing spam to a customer, while in the background a group of Vikings begin incessantly chanting the words “spam,spam,spam .. “ until the waitress can no longer be heard.
In the early days of the Internet, SPAM became the reference for people who excessively posted items into message boards and newsgroups. The term subsequently became used for unsolicited emails and bulk emails.
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