One thing you can say about Spamford Wallace is that his name fits him well. The self-proclaimed “Spam King” has made it his life’s passion to be the most annoying man in America. Of course, that’s not how he describes it. He says he’s just a legitimate businessman who uses mass email to advertise his company’s products.
You’ve probably received one of Spamford’s emails. But more likely, you’ve received about a thousand of them. Because according to Federal Judge Joe DiClerico, Spamford has been a busy man over the past few years, sending out millions of emails which, once opened, have changed settings on consumers’ PCs, changed home pages, and installed pop-up ads and spyware. Incidentally, his real name is Stanford, but once he found out he could get more publicity with a nickname, he was all over “Spamford” like Oprah on a plate of chicken wings.
Now despite the judge’s ruling, let’s not be so quick to condemn ol’ Spamford. For as much of a low life as he makes himself out to be, he’s really no different from any other weasel who floods our snail mail boxes with advertisements, whether it’s a used car dealer, a mortgage lender, or a candidate for the U. S. Senate. Where it gets twisted is that some of the email ads that Spamford sent to people were actually for spyware removal products. See what’s happening here? Spamford was infecting PCs with spyware ads that, for a nominal fee, promised to remove spyware from PCs. Quite a racket. Or so Judge DiClerico thought. Last week, he ordered Spamford to stop sending out spyware that takes over parts of a user’s computer. Sure, it’s a limited ruling, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
Spamford may not be doing anything illegal – for all its faults, spyware is still not against the law – but some would argue that he’s one step removed from something called “phishing,” which is outright fraud. Have you ever received an email that claims to be from your bank and wants you to provide your account number and other information to “make sure that your account is safe from hackers”? Or maybe you’ve gotten an email that looks like it’s from your credit card company and has a link that takes you right to the company’s website, where it asks you to enter your login name and password. That’s called phishing because the spammers are using email as bait to catch a phish, which is you. (Why the “ph” instead of “f”? I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with the rock group, maybe not. The only reason I know about the rock group is because I’ve seen their stickers on the back windows of ’88 Jettas. If you can enlighten me, feel free to post a message below.)
Phishing is spamming taken to a new low. And because it’s more profitable than traditional spam, it looks to be the next big thing among Internet ne’er-do-wells. It only makes sense. If someone wants to steal your money, why waste time hoping you’ll buy a phony product when they can just get it directly from your checking account? It’s easy enough to create an authentic-looking website. Of course, savvy Internet users like you don’t fall for those phishing lines. In fact, you’re more likely to warn your parents and friends that such an email is making the rounds. But how many unsuspecting users are out there clicking away, thinking they’re protecting their bank accounts when they’re really opening them up to crooks? Too many, I fear.
What will change all this? Maturity. Both in terms of Web security and international law enforcement. Cases like Spamford’s serve to remind us of the Web’s infancy and how it must crawl before it can walk (and eventually run and jump and develop osteoporosis). Maybe our children’s children won’t even know about spam because every email ad they get will be solicited. Maybe by then, fraudulent emails will be easily traceable and a digital signature will hold the perps to account. Maybe.
Until then, we have to put up with people like Spamford. But with help from judges like DiClerico, hopefully, one by one, those people will start to fade away.
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