As you probably know, CWIRE has a strict policy against SPAM (the sending of unsolicited email messages).

SPAM is easy and cheap, but it is ultimately destructive. It annoys people, it wastes people's time, it chews-up bandwidth and storage space, and worst of all, it is often used deceptively to trick people into parting with their money.

Remarkably, despite the public outcry against SPAM, there are still those who use and promote SPAM. They argue that there is nothing wrong with it. There are still many "list brokers" out there who will sell you lists of email addresses and lead you to believe that SPAM is perfectly OK. Don't believe them!

There's a sucker born every minute.       -- P.T. Barnum

Unfortunately, there are still many businesses which do not fully understand SPAM. They do not realize why it is so harmful and so annoying to most Internet users. Yet there are millions more people getting onto the Internet every day.

These new Internet users ("newbies") are being preyed-upon by list brokers and advocates of SPAM.

Spammers don't always realize what they are doing. So don't just assume that all spammers are evil. Many businesses who send SPAM are simply the unwitting victims of unscrupulous list brokers. They have been told that there is absolutely nothing illegal or immoral about sending SPAM, and that it will be good for their business.

Some nonprofit organizations even send SPAM, reasoning that "after all, it's for a good cause."

It may be true that many people read SPAM and actually respond to it. But that doesn't mean that it is OK to send SPAM. Just because some people buy it and promote it does not mean that it should be condoned.

It is the social and moral obligation of all netizens (Internet users) to protect Internet "newbies" -- to inform would-be spammers of the destructive consequences of SPAM.

With millions of new people getting onto the Internet every day, there is still a lot of public education to do.

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The following businesses have sent SPAM to CWIRE and have not responded to our polite requests (and stern demands) to stop, and our invitation to use other methods -- legitimate and free methods -- to promote their business. We encourage you -- if you know these people -- to tell them why SPAM is not good for their reputation in the local community. While SPAM may help them make money quickly in the short term, it will not lead to long term business and goodwill. We will remove any listing immediately upon request. We invite these businesses to renounced SPAM, and tell about their SPAM "war stories" in an article for CWIRE. We will offer them free promotion/listings on CWIRE just as we do for all local companies.

• Mesee Pasadena (Identified only as pasca@city2city.com)
  This company is collecting display advertising from local businesses and posting it onto their website. They do not post any identification on their website, and they have repeatedly refused to identify themselves in their email messages. What does that tell you? (13 messages sent to 8 different email addresses between Nov. '99 and May 2000)
  • Have you been spammed by Mesee, too? Send us copies!
  • Remove this listing!
• iDetect ME, which asked for money to be sent to this address:
vCash
7013 Foothill Blvd
Tujunga Ca, 91042
CWIRE was notified on 11/27/2000 of a "spammer" in our town. CWIRE received the same SPAM message on 11/20/2000. There was no identification in the message, and the reply-to address at hotmail.com either never existed or was deleted. Our attempt to contact the sender and request removal from their spam-list was, of course, unsuccessful.
  • Have you been spammed by iDetect, too? Send us copies!
  • Remove this listing!
    

SPAM Resource Sites

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• Junkbusters.com
  

URL: http://cwire.com/pub/business/spammers.asp
Viewed: 7/5/2008 11:27:39 PM
Last Modified: December 5, 2001 2:25 PM
Source: Robert Marston, Business Editor (May 2000)
URLID: /pub/business/spammers.asp