Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel installs filters to block spammers.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 14:45:17 -0500

November 13, 2003

Spammers set sights on devices other than
email
By MATTHEW FORDAHL

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Three
years ago, Adam Kalsey set
up a Web log to share his
thoughts about online
business and the digital
revolution. Like countless
other "bloggers," he lets his
readers post comments.

Recently, his site has been
getting remarks like "Thanks
for the information!" and
"Sounds great!" They're not
from supporters, but from
people - or machines - who
leave names like "Generic
Viagra," "Online Gambling" and
"Free Poker" and links to
unsavory sites.

Spam has never been limited
to e-mail. But now,
commercial pitches are
increasingly popping up in
online chats, instant
messages, cell phones
with text messaging and
Web log comments.

Spammers are flocking to new communications tools, threatening to cripple the
devices just as they are beginning to take off.
Howard Rheingold, a futurist who predicts always-on communication will
revolutionize public discourse, is worried that all these new forms of spam
could freeze the revolution in its tracks.

There will be no great social transformation if cell phones are turned off,
instant messenger programs shut down or blog comments disabled to halt the flow
of offers for online porn or cheap drugs.

"It forces you to either turn off the comments and lose some of the value of the
medium, or spend your time deleting spam," said Rheingold, who runs his own
blog.

Today, most of the attention of lawmakers has been on e-mail spam, which is
estimated to comprise nearly half of e-mail traffic. Attempts to write broader
laws have not succeeded, and might whittle away at free speech.

"We ought to be legislating general concepts - things like, you can't market to
somebody who's asked you not to," said David Sorkin, a professor who studies
spam laws at John Marshall Law School. "But in the case of spam in particular,
that hasn't really worked."

It's possible legislation targeting unwanted e-mail could be used to fight other
unwanted communication; text messages on cell phones often originate from
e-mail. Laws limiting telemarketing also might be useful.

But that assumes the legislation will work, and that spammers won't move outside
the law.

Kalsey, a Web consultant who lives near Sacramento, Calif., has taken matters
into his own hands to combat Web log spam.
Working from the theory that blog spam can be combatted like real-world
graffiti, Kalsey tried deleting messages as fast as they appeared. That worked
for a few weeks but the volume has recently been increasing.

Now he's tracking down those who leave the comments, collecting evidence and
reporting them to their Internet providers and domain registers so their
accounts can be canceled.

If it sounds like a lot of work, it is.
"The blog immune system does seem to be responding," said Kalsey. "People are
coming up with collective solutions like black lists for spammers."

Most of today's comment spam doesn't urge someone to click on the link. Rather,
it's posted to boost a site's position on search engines.

Mena Trott, chief executive of Six Apart, the maker of the popular Web log
system Movable Type, said the company is working to make deletion of unwanted
messages easier.

Cell phone carriers and providers of instant messaging services, meanwhile, are
finding that spam problems can be even more disruptive at work.

For Internet messaging, spam is growing just as the technology jumps from
personal to business communications.  To address the problem, companies are
blocking messages from outsiders, instituting "white lists" of accepted contacts
or not allowing IM at all.

But that's making messaging less convenient.

America Online, the largest instant-messaging provider, has a number of
roadblocks to halt spam IM, or spim. Among other things, a software sentry looks
for spammers - automated or in-the-flesh - who try to send multiple messages
simultaneously, said spokesman Nicholas Graham.

Cell phone text message spam can be even more disruptive - and expensive.
Some Nextel Communications cell phone subscribers recently got a 3:30 a.m.
message urging support of the workers in the Southern California grocery strike.
Another spammer urged a vote in favor of recalling California Gov. Gray Davis.

Aside from early morning annoyance, some plans charge for each message sent or
received. Nextel, which last month installed a filtering system, is offering
refunds to customers who complain.

"We will be going after (spammers) to the furthest extent of law," said Nextel
spokeswoman Mila Fairfax. "Anything we can do, we will do."
http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=62429

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