Beware Of Spam Hunters!

By Bud Wiser

There is nothing wrong with spam as long as you do not break any Federal or State laws! Search Engine Acceptable Use Policies (AUP), means nothing in the real world. Ethics are nothing more then personal AUP. Based on a set of principles of right conduct, a theory or a system of moral values. Do you understand what that means?

It means what one person finds morally correct, another person might find wrong. Ethics is not a iron clad rule because every one has their own ideas what should be included and what should not. In business we try to be as ethical as we can. But honestly, as long as no laws are being broke there is no moral obligation to do any more.

What is spam?

Spam is defined by unwanted advertisements. By unwanted we mean, the ads were not asked for, they were just there or appeared with out warning. Pretty much like billboards on highways. Your driving along minding your own business and wham-o, you are confronted by a larger then life size billboard advertising some thing! Or your listening to the radio and before you know it your hit with a string of commercials! In both cases you can either look at or listen to the ads, or ignore them. On the web we speak of spam in the form of unsolicited email, which is finally regulated here in the United States. People were sending out email spam at such a pace that the government had to act. After all email spam took up your time and computer resources. Other kinds of spam consists of spamming search engines by submitting thousands of pages created to get traffic. There is also referral spam which spams other web sites. Comment spam for blogs, and stats counter spam for web sites. Again to get traffic. None of which is illegal.

There are individuals with apparently enough time on their hands to hunt down these spammers, they call themselves spam hunters. They use rather questionable methods to stop the spammers. In fact they will do any thing to stop those spammers, including contacting every one from their host providers, ISP, Google, the FBI, any one they can find to complain to. Some even resort to nasty threats, and posting personal information about the spammers. Very similar tactics employed by other hate groups. It makes them feel important, and worth while, despite the fact that their efforts are largely ignored and make little difference.

The most reason witch hunt was on PRStorm, where these self proclaimed Internet vigilantes began a aggressive attack on the owner of PRStorm, sending him threats, and posting his personal information on the web for all to see. This is how they work, and they are proud of it too. Their efforts against PRStorm may have actually been effective, as rumor has it the owner is trying to sell PRStorm, and may even take it off the market. But before our spam hunters celebrate victory they need to remember that if PRStorm is indeed taken off the market, then all the current users of PRStorm are free to start giving away PRStorm for free to any one! Talk about pouring gasoline on a fire!

Know Who Your Enemy Is!

If your a marketer, chances are you spam. You should take the correct precautions so you do not fall under the spam hunters cross fire. Shield yourself well. Use proxies to register domains. Only use hosts with some balls. And just as important, take the time to learn who your enemy is. Compile your own list of spam hunters, their web pages, whois, ISP, email, any thing you can dig up. There really are only about a dozen or so major players, and can easily be found by Googling it a little. Take the time to read their pages, interesting reading I assure you! By compiling your list early, you can act quicker. For example some of these spam hunters actually break laws! If you can trace complaints to any of them, you can watch them and gather your ammo. If their allegations or actions cost you or your business money, and they live in the States, you can fight fire with fire and take them to court. Having as much information as you can get will be a big advantage for you!

You Got A Right To Spam!

 As long as you are not breaking any laws, you can spam all you want, the laws will be on your side, NOT theirs! If they want to fight dirty, you will be armed with the information you need should you decide to fight dirty too. Their arguments against spam are all weak. They can avoid every kind of spam we can dish out if they want to. They choose to make this personal. Remember, AUP’s, and ethics, have no bearing the courts. Know the laws and stay with in the laws! And most importantly, KNOW WHO YOUR ENEMY IS!

Posted by Administrator on Monday, January 2nd, 2006 at 10:58 pm.