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Read Carefully,
You can be prosecuted
- As of January 1, 2004, the
CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 marshalled US federal law
against the grossest form of spam
- Implicates not only spammers,
but those who procure their services. Indeed,
if you fail to prevent spammers from promoting
your products and services you can prosecuted.
- Deception of E-Mail Is Now a Crime
One of the most persistent problems with spam
are tricks and deceptions that prevent spam
e-mails from being filtered out and refused
by ISPs and recipients. From now on, fraudsters,
hackers, and tricksters can face jail time.
The CAN-SPAM Act (Sections 4(a) and 5(a)) prohibits
such spammer tricks as:
- Hijacking another e-mail server to send
or relay spam
- Falsifying e-mail headers or e-mail addresses
to hide one's identity.
- Using someone else's e-mail address in
the "from" field.
- Registering for e-mail addresses under
false identities.
Deceptive subject headings.
- Liability?
The law covers both spammers and those who "procure"
their services (Secs. 3(9), 3(12), and 3(16)(A)).
You can't just outsource your spamming and get
off the hook. You can be held liable if the
e-mail service you employ isn't actually using
a permission-based list.
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