Fighting Back Against SPAM By Jake Winemiller As you know, we are in a largely paperless business (hint: you are reading an example of how paperless we can be right now).  While we haven’t altogether eliminated the need for some real, physical paper, we have been turning more towards the net for a quick and easy communication and documentation tool. Not as many papers on the desk, not as many sloppy faxes, and of course: less snail mail.  Our alternative- scratch that- our savior has been the miracle of email.  It doesn’t fit in every case (sometimes you just need that personal touch), but it sure does make life easier. And just like every other great communication innovation, it has been ransacked by the dreaded predators.  Planting itself firmly in the list of all-time nuisances and time burglars is (you guessed it) SPAM. It’s everywhere you could possibly turn. Losing your hair?  Check your email!  Want to get rich quick without risk or work?  Check your email! Want to lose 60lbs. in 30 minutes? And how could we forget that nice girl that in invited you to your site.......5 TIMES IN 5 MINUTES! It never stops.  In fact, it’s getting worse every day.  A study published in USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-01-03-spam-costs_x.htm) say that SPAM now costs US Corporations over $8.9 Billion every year in resources and productivity! As a hosting company, we are constantly searching for new ways to stop spammers, but in many ways our hands are tied.  It is very difficult for any hosting provider or ISP to cut out spam on the server level without the possibility of blocking meaningful and important email that you, our clients, need to go about your daily business.  Many solutions are ruled out because, for your sake, we won’t take that chance. So, are we supposed to just grin and bear it? Maybe not. More and more businesses are taking this problem into their own hands by fighting back against spammers using the few anti-spam laws available to them- and winning. www.kansasnospam.com is a great resource for news on SPAM and lawsuits currently going on in the state of Kansas and across the US. Other constant victims of SPAM have been more creative in states where the laws still haven’t caught up with the technology. Mark Reinertson brought a small claims suit against Sears Roebuck and won $539 in damages.  In his case, there were no laws that protected him against spam, so he worked around the problem by using a Federal junk fax law.  This isn’t a sure-fire path to victory, but he gambled the $35 filing fee, and the judge agreed with him (http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/891022.asp ). I don’t want anyone to take this as any type of legal advice, but if you want a decent resource for state by state laws on spamming, I have found http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/legislation/spamlaws02.htm as a good place to start gaining an understanding of your rights. If you have any information you would like to share with us on recent anti-spam legislation or news, please pass it along. I you want more information on how DNI can help SPAM be less of a nuisance within your home or business, please give me a call at 1-888-887-6727 or email me at so we can talk about how our SPAM protected email hosting can help you eliminate the clutter in YOUR inbox.