Virginia files felony spam charges

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But that was not his assertion at all. He said that he used MS (without specify what that meant) and that since he quit, his spam problem went away. That may be completely true.

If, by MS, he meant Hotmail, that would seem reasonable. If, by MS, he meant an entire MS system including Windows, Hotmail, etc., it still seems reasonable. Either of those situations would reflect an accurate, albeit ambiguous use of his assertion. He did not at any point say that all MS products cause spam.

It would be a leap in reasoning to say that MS per se is related to spam, but it is equally a leap in reasoning to say that he asserted that it was.

Interestingly, Microsoft just took major steps to combat spam. They were largely effective, and a Hotmail mailbox I have that used to receive hundreds of spams a day is now down to a trickle. That does not mean that it will hold up in the long run, but I do suspect that Microsoft's actions make the spam problem worse as a whole.

Several years ago, MS took action to get rid of spam in Hotmail. They went from having no spam controls to having some. Since it's far easier for spammers to target Hotmail than to target most domains (they can guess email addresses all day long and get many of them right. Bob1234 will probably be a real address at Hotmail but not one at most ramdom domains) spammers will learn Hotmail's rules and change their strategy.

It used to be before Hotmail made that change years ago that most spam messages were sent to a large number or undisclosed recipients. When MS implemented its spam tools, spammers learned that they have to send out each spam addressed directly to each recipient. That ultimately made it harder for folks besides MS to control spam.

That does not by any means suggest that Microsoft should not have taken such an action. It was necessary. But it did exacerbate the overall problem.

Posted by: wresnick   Posted on: 12/15/03 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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