The lifeblood of the spammer is email. They need to be able to send lots of it on an ongoing basis to stay in "business". High profile spammers can send 80 million pieces of junk email every single day. Yes one single person.
ISPs all over the online world have vowed to stop spammers sending such vast amounts of email through their mail servers. Do they really keep their word? All the end user sees is that the spam keeps coming. There must be a loophole there somewhere. There is.
In the soft white underbelly of the internet there exists something known as a pink contract. The term pink contract comes from the color of the famous tinned meat that junk email gets its name from. A pink contract is simply a business agreement between the ISP and the spammer. The spammer agrees to pay the ISP to turn a blind eye to the junk email passing through their mail servers.
Surely this is bad business for the ISP? Well the answer to that is both Yes and No. Yes it's bad news for the people who receive the junk email and No it's good news for the ISPs bank balance. A monthly pink contract can pay the ISP amounts from $10,000 upwards. Bearing in mind that the average work-at-home spammer averages $100,000 net per year the above figure is small change fo the bigger junk email vendors (the guys who earn $200,000 - $400,000 per month.)
But..... the CanSpam Act 2003... surely that's going to make a difference? Of course. Any ISP in the United States can get in serious, serious trouble for signing pink contracts. Problem is that there's a whole big world wide web out there and the vast majority of pink contracts are signed with overseas ISPs where US authorities have no jurisdiction - China and Russia being perfect examples.
There's no moral to this story. Spam is a huge problem that's finally being taken seriously by Governmental bodies. However until they start imposing prison sentences or seizure orders on those individuals and companies in the pink contract business the problem can only continue.
Need a spam blocker? Check out Spam-Site.com for spam filter reviews and spam related information.
A blacklist, as the name implies, is a list of... Read More
6 August, 2004: Polesoft Inc., home of Professional anti spam... Read More
Junk mail works. Why does it work? How does it... Read More
A hearty welcome to all the spam fighting filters and... Read More
It's no secret that the US economy has slowed down,... Read More
Do you get bounced, or rejected emails sent by someone... Read More
How would you feel if you found a link on... Read More
The lifeblood of the spammer is email. They need to... Read More
Marketers usually think of anti-spam tactics as 'how to prevent'... Read More
Google is engaged in a war. It is a war... Read More
5 Ways Spam Is Affecting Your Business And what we... Read More
English, German, Italian - It's All SPAM To MeHas anyone... Read More
In 1998, nearly 10% of all email traffic on the... Read More
While we all admit that unsolicited commercial email is a... Read More
As most small, medium and large businesses in this country... Read More
What is spam ? ... Read More
You're not alone!Who hasn't surfed the web looking for information... Read More
Are you tired of spam stealing your time, your money,... Read More
Block Spam and Other Email Threats From Entering Your Gateway... Read More
In today's spam-filled email world, it's sometimes VERY difficult to... Read More
Spam is out of control! I guess that would be... Read More
I'm really, truly fed up with spam. Every day when... Read More
One of our Australian clients sent out a campaign using... Read More
Email is the quintessential business communication tool, so when it... Read More
Although there still seem to be some differences among the... Read More
What is spam ? ... Read More
There are hundreds of thousands of people who are trying... Read More
Before we start getting deep into the meat of this... Read More
English, German, Italian - It's All SPAM To MeHas anyone... Read More
5 Ways Spam Is Affecting Your Business And what we... Read More
Spam, spam, spam. It's terrible not only for those of... Read More
Spammers get email addresses from web pages using programs called... Read More
With the number of spam filtering solutions increasing each week... Read More
Block Spam and Other Email Threats From Entering Your Gateway... Read More
Let me ask a couple of questions:If (potential) customers sends... Read More
In a word Bayesian spam filters are "intelligent". Bayesian spam... Read More
Do you get bounced, or rejected emails sent by someone... Read More
My friends in the web hosting business have recently informed... Read More
As most small, medium and large businesses in this country... Read More
We've all become familiar with the term spam. It's become... Read More
If you are buried in SPAM then you're not alone.... Read More
Although there still seem to be some differences among the... Read More
Phishing is rapidly becoming on the largest threats to your... Read More
Unless the filters on your computer are really good, you're... Read More
You can stop unwanted email spam, you can choose to... Read More
It's no secret that the US economy has slowed down,... Read More
The lifeblood of the spammer is email. They need to... Read More
Very often SPAMMERS take advantage of catch-all email setup on... Read More
If you're anything like me, you're pretty sick of it,... Read More
6 August, 2004: Polesoft Inc., home of Professional anti spam... Read More
Spam Blocking |