[techtalk] Sick of surf and porn addicts

[James Sutherland]

On Mon, 28 May 2001 wny-tc at juno.com wrote:

> Another case, this one thru a coworker.  In the process of trying to
> track down an unsolicited advertiser, getting nothing though their EU ISP
> he contacted their local Consulate and was rebuffed.

UCE isn't a government issue: it's legal. The only recourse is to report
it to the ISP, who *should* then reply "Thanks for the UCE report, the
account concerned has now been terminated". In the EU, they are not
legally permitted to give you more information than that - but Hotmail
handle account terminations in exactly the same way.

If there's no reply from the ISP's abuse department, reporting the UCE to
their upstream provider will usually produce a response; failing that,
MAPS. The government won't get involved, whatever happens - spam isn't
illegal!

> It seems that sending E-Scams is not illegal from an individual and is
> only discouraged from a company.  That same action from an individual
> in the US of A would have gotten an unfriendly visit from the FBI or
> similar group, the hard drive and/or computer would have been seized,
> etc...

For *spam*, the FBI have no business getting involved. If it's an
attempted fraud (like the Nigerian government "please give us your bank
details so we can give you money" one) the police in the country concerned
might care - although anyone falling for it deserves a Darwin award...


James.