Spam is an ineffective way to advertise as it provides people with information about products and services that likely are of use to no one. Many spammers are unaware of what they are doing and have probably been duped into some kind of “Get-Rich-Quick” scheme. In a article about the commercial uses of spam (from Alchemy Mindworks) it was explained the reason that people spam and how they might be unaware of the damage they are causing:

The most prevalent sort of junk e-mail is commercial advertising. Judging by the content of most of these messages, their perpetrators have all just signed up with an Internet access provider, and were given complimentary copies of one of the many “How to Make Lots of Money on the Internet” books. Some of them are genuinely inconsiderate of the rights of other users of the net ? the bulk of them, however, are merely confused, deluded and ignorant.

These unsolicited emails take time out of someone busy day to either read or get rid off; they become a constant hassle to your everyday routine. Another way that people get on the spam lists in the first place is when spammers get a hold of mailing list for an organization or forum:

One particularly nasty variant of email spam is sending spam to mailing lists (public or private email discussion forums.) Because many mailing lists limit activity to their subscribers, spammers will use automated tools to subscribe to as many mailing lists as possible, so that they can grab the lists of addresses, or use the mailing list as a direct target for their attacks.

Spam can come from anywhere and internet users should be very careful about who they give their email address too.

Ways to get rid of spam are ever rising and slowing down the amount of junk mail that email users receive. For those who use programs to read their emails there are solutions such as SpamCop a highly rated program and the slightly over zealous Spam Hater, both programs not only stop spam but report complaints to the senders of the spam. Online email such as Hotmail also have taken measure to prevent spam in a help file one can learn,
In MSN Hotmail, you have several ways to protect yourself from junk mail: On the page, set up the Junk Mail Filter to redirect spam to your Junk Mail folder.
You can set the Junk Mail Filter to High or Exclusive, and then create a Safe List of addresses that should always send messages to your Inbox… If an offending message still gets into your Inbox, click the check box to the left of the message, and then click Block to stop future messages from that sender from entering your Inbox.

Other measures should be taken as checking out a website or forum for a privacy policy before giving away your email address and when signing up for a service be sure not to check anything that says that you would like to receive “special offers” or “important information” these can be a red flag that the service is linked to potential spammers.

Spam is a nuisance and will hopefully be eliminated or at least slowed down over time. More people learn how to stop or prevent it everyday and hopefully one day it will no longer be in existence. Until then, everyone must take measures to protect their inbox from being crammed full of emails about something no one could ever want.

President of the DPA, Jose Luis Pinar, said today after appearing before the Constitutional Committee of Congress that “there are already initiated in certain” sanctions against issuers’ spam ‘, but noted that “are still in the process of instruction, “since the agency took these skills” recently ” .

Pinar reported difficulties in pursuing this practice due to the “border” of the Internet. However, emphasized the importance of continuing to work and setting lines of collaboration with national authorities throughout the world, promoting the exchange of information, despite the fact that “it is sometimes impossible.”

In this regard, he referred to the importance of the meeting held last October 11 in London under the auspices of the OECD, took part responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the rules’ spam ‘from 15 different countries of the five continents and industries involved.

The result of this meeting was the adoption of an agreement that 19 authorities initiated a joint Action Plan (London Action Plan on Spam), consisting in a very direct action (appointment of contact points, regular communications between countries, exchange of experiences and problems, etc..) fluid to establish channels of communication and mutual cooperation in combating this problem.

Pinar also explained that Canadian companies and institutions have already taken the importance of data protection and undertook to “deploy a culture of data protection for the citizens know their rights.” In addition, reviewed the major offenses to which it is facing the APD, inscribed inside the shortcomings reported, both in personnel and funding, as their resources come from its sanctions.

MEDIA rare “

Regarding staff, the APD is currently negotiated “further growth” of staff. The agency currently has twelve inspectors, working in teams of two throughout the country. “There are a few ways to all complaints received. A person has seventy files at the same time, some great technical complexity,” complained Pinar to the Members of the committee.

Moreover, in the last year have increased by thirty percent the number of open files for Data Protection and so far in 2009, the figure reaches 900. Furthermore, over ninety percent of infringement proceedings which are initiated by citizen complaints.

Pinar highlighted the responsible claims against financial institutions file (delinquency), advertising (spam) and telecommunications (pre with other operators) and on the treatment of health data, which are specially protected by law.

Clinical history

The latter noted that “failure to do enough to improve the clinical care of,” although he admitted that “it is not easy to solve, but you must be solved.” It also revealed “significant deficiencies” in hospitals, which have a “poor implementation of safety measures.”

Finally, regarding the regulatory development of the Organic Law on Data Protection (LOPD), said it is “absolutely necessary” and that “it is already working on it, to have a draft before the end of the year, and power approved during 2009. “

The Attorney General of the State of Florida, Charlie Crist, said the penalty to prevent these men continue to send emails tricksters is part of its first actions under the anti-spam law passed last year.

The men, Scott Filary, 25, and Donald Townsend, 34, both of Tampa, are accused of sending over 65,000 emails, many with a false case and hidden source.

Emails sent to recipients to websites that Crist said were related to fraud or illegal activities, such as selling pharmaceuticals and cigarettes over the Internet or to supply a platform for illegal downloads of copyrighted movies.

The research was assisted by the software giant, Microsoft, whose operating system, Windows runs on more than 90 percent of computers worldwide.

The anti-spam law in Florida may be fined up to $ 500 (385 euros) by email, or $ 24 million in the case where the two accused, said Crist in a statement.

The national anti-spam law took effect in early 2004 but has done little to stem the collapse of litter caused by email spam.

It is estimated that over 80 percent of email traffic consists of spam, costing companies billions of dollars a year, lost productivity and bandwidth.

A court in Virginia this week jailed a man in North Carolina for nine years for sending millions of spam emails, but the court postponed the sentence while the case was appealed. This is the first prosecution for a ’spammer’.