Making the U.S. safe for spam

Tue, 04 Nov 2003 18:30:00 +0000

I am quite content with the size of my penis. I don't want Vicodin through the mail. I have no plans to refinance my mortgage. Hell, I don't even have a mortgage. I don't care to see Sexy Farm Babes Getting It On. I don't care who was deposed in which African nation or how much they have squirreled away in a Bahamian bank; I'm not sending out my account information. No way. I don't need anti-fungal ointment. My teeth are white enough, thank you. I don't want to meet you tonight, I did not block your IM, and I don't even know what herbal Viagra is. Please. Can't I just be left alone?

Spam is more than a mere annoyance. Forrester Research estimates that spam costs U.S. businesses $10 billion a year. Brightmail, a San Francisco anti-spam technology company, found that as of July, 50 percent of all e-mail traffic on the Internet is made up of spam. Worms and viruses such as SoBig and more recently Mimail use spam technology to spread at alarming rates, and they threaten to cripple the whole of the Internet. Something needs to be done. Unfortunately, something was.

Salon.com > Matthew Honan

Making the U.S. safe for spam