New spam law

**Jeff** · 13-12-03

The new anti spam legislation came into effect a couple of days ago, and today I received some spam from a UK company, sent via a BT Internet account (rather than spam from an American sent via servers in China, which is what most spam seems to be!), so I decided to find out how to report this to the Information Commissioner, who can take legal action against the offender.

When I found out the complaint procedure I couldn't believe it.
If you want to report spam, you have to download this six page document, which you then have fill in and send back by snail mail.

What a complete waste of time. Surely they've had enough time to come up with a better system than this?

Making the complaint procedure as long winded as this is just going to deter people from making complaints, so the new law will be ineffective.

**jokes4mobiles** · 14-12-03

Is the spammer earning from an affiliate program?

If so let the merchant and network know.

That'll sort out the problem much quicker than through any government or legal system.

**Jeff** · 15-12-03

In the case I was planning to report to the Information Commissioner the spammer doesn't make money from affiliate programs.

I always report spam to all the appropriate people - ISPs, hosting companies, affiliate networks etc, but a lot of spammers who get caught will just start up again using another name. At least if we can get legal action taken against them it might stop repeat offenders.

**jokes4mobiles** · 15-12-03

If they're not making any money, whats the point in spamming?

OK so they're not making through an affiliate programme in this case so you'll have to find another way to get them.

If we report the ones that are using affiliate programmes they will loose all the legit commission as well as that earnt through the spam mail so there will be a great disincentive to spam.

[Thinking aloud]
Can networks or merchants tell if a click came from a webpage or an email. If so, could they not allow email based commission until the affiliate has earnt a certain amount through a website or until a certain time has passed by.