Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
Attacking Spam
Aired September 04, 2002 - 12:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Unless you are incredibly popular, you probably get much more junk e-mail than the real kind. And while there are certain tricks and techniques to spare you from spam, consumer groups say there ought to be a law.
And that brings us to CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg.
Hi, Daniel.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
Yes, that's right. You know, next to telemarketing, consumers repeatedly say that spam, or junk or bulk e-mail is most annoying way of advertising or marketing, and as such, these three consumer groups have announced today that they are officially filing a petition with the Federal Trade Commission that's asking the FTC to ban or in a sense declare what is deceptive spam.
They are asking for a specific definition. We have some of the points up here that they mentioned today. They wanted to find this deceptive spam as something that misrepresents the sender, so that you can't see where it's coming from necessarily, or its not correct, misrepresents the subject or the content of e-mail that you're getting. Also that it fails to provide reliable contact information for the party that's actually sending it. Beyond that, there are a couple of other points that it mentions, like failing to give someone a chance to opt out of this system, or this e-mail that people are getting, and its sent to someone who is part of this list, and isn't being unsolicited in a sense to people who are getting these bulk e- mails, which, as I say, are very frustrating for a lot of consumers.
PHILLIPS: Does the FTC seem to support the idea?
SIEBERG: So far, the word we're getting is that the FTC is supportive of the idea. The FTC, in fact, has own site that talks about spam, how to protect yourself from spam. They have often come out in the past and talked about these deceptive spammers, what they're doing, and how people can combat it themselves.
PHILLIPS: Why has spam become so overwhelming for people, besides that it's annoying. In other ways, how has it affected us?
SIEBERG: Yes, absolutely, it has become very annoying for so many people, and part of the reason is that the spammers themselves, the people sending out these mass e-mails, have just become more advanced with the way that they're harvesting or gathering people's e- mail addresses, searching out on the Internet, finding where people are, gathering these e-mail addresses, and then sending them out literally in the thousands, sometimes the millions at one time.
Of course everybody has a horror story. That's also part of today's announcement. These three groups have made a Web site available called banthespam.com, where people can register and then submit their horror stories of spam acts, in a sense, venting their frustration with spam.
PHILLIPS: What can people do to avoid it? What are some other things?
SIEBERG: Yes, that's a great point, Kyra. And we wanted to give people some tips that were provided by the FTC, that people can do in terms of limiting your spam in your in-box. Don't display your e-mail address in public, try to conceal it if you can. Always check a privacy policy when you're submit your Web address to a Web site. Use a couple different e-mail addresses if you're very concerned. Even use a unique e-mail address if you've got a fairly common name. There are a number of different filtering software on the market you can use, different types of e-mail filters.
You can even change the preferences in your own e-mail program, e-mail software, even if you've got a Web-based e-mail account, like a Hotmail, or a Yahoo! account. You can change your preferences in that to limit it. Beyond that, to fight it, you can report it to the FTC. They have a Web site where you can go, FTC.gov/spam. Let the FTC -- if your remove request is not honored, and then beyond that, you can claim to your Internet Service Provider that this is not being honored, and you're being overwhelmed as many people are with all of this spam on the Internet.
Very frustrating. People in a sense saying they are losing the convenience of e-mail because of all the spam in their in-box.
PHILLIPS: That is so true. Well, you've got us all going home tonight and following your instructions.
Daniel, thank you.
SIEBERG: All right, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
