Re: MARKETERS TAKE AIM AT SPAM
tom minchin (tom@interact.net.au)
Mon, 5 Oct 1998 12:01:35 +1000
On Mon, Oct 05, 1998 at 10:41:09AM +1000, Tony Barry wrote:
> >From Edupage, 4 October 1998
>
> MARKETERS TAKE AIM AT SPAM
> Marketing experts meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland say they want industrial
> nations to adopt a global system to fight junk e-mail. "We are trying to
> lay the foundations to develop an e-mail preference service globally, for
> consumers to opt out of receiving unwanted e-mail solicitations," says Colin
> Lloyd, CEO of Britain's Direct Marketing Association. "We don't want to ban
> it because we think that would be closing the door to what could be a very
> exciting marketing opportunity in the future." The system would work in a
> similar fashion to the lists that consumers can pay to have their names
> added to, requesting that no direct mail be sent to their address. Lloyd
> says spam has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S.: "It's the cancer of
> electronic commerce. You either kill it or cure it." (Reuters 2 Oct 98)
>
Unfortunately these kind of "remove lists" have already been done, and there
seems to be general feeling amongst the more cynical or realistic users of
the internet that they're just a scam to obtain 'live' addresses for use.
It sems a bit rich to have to pay not to have spam email sent to you. The
marketers are too sly to admit if they were honest, they'd set up a list of
people who wanted spam email (opt-in).
tom@interact.net.au