SPAM Complaining to the Spammer

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Put a Spammer in the Slammer by Phil Agre

Part 7
Complaining the spammers themselves

If you can recover a useful e-mail address from a spam message then you can complain to the spammer directly. It is hard to be certain of having the spammer's real address, but if you find an address on the spammer's Web site then you can be reasonably certain that it is correct. You should realize, however, that by sending electronic mail to a spammer, you have just validated your address for purposes of future spam. Some people claim that they have only made their spam problems worse by complaining in this way, particularly if they use software tools that process a spam message and create complaint messages automatically.

If a spam message mentions a phone number, one possibility is to call them and complain. This is easy and cheap if the number happens to be local, or if it is a toll-free (800 or 888) number. You'll probably get an answering machine. However, you should be aware of several drawbacks:

Spammers have been known to include someone else's phone number in their spam messages in order to cause them grief.
If you have Caller-ID turned on, your call can result in your phone number being captured and used for heaven knows what.
If you call a toll-free number, the person you call can capture the number you have called from regardless of whether you have Caller-ID turned on.
If you call repeatedly or abusively, you might be breaking a law.
Do not call any 900 or 976 numbers, or any numbers outside of the United States, which might result in a substantial extra charge on your phone bill.

Some spammers may simply be ignorant people who have been conned into paying for miraculous cheap advertising. If you're a kind soul and think you might be dealing with such a person, and they've provided a US mail address in their message, you might write them a letter. Perhaps you can create a form letter that explains the problem, and simply mail it to every postal address that is mentioned in a spam message that you receive.

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Publication Restrictions:
Nonprofit user group publications may reprint this article provided that you print it in its entirety, verbatim, without any additions, deletions, or modifications, and so long as you include the following copyright statement:

"(c) 1997 by Phil Agre. All rights reserved.
Phil Agre is an associate professor of communication at the University of California, San Diego. He edits an Internet mailing list called the Red Rock Eater News Service, on which this article was originally distributed. Details on the Web at http://communication.ucsd.edu/pagre/rre.html . "

You'll also need to send Phil a hardcopy of the issue when it appears.

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