FTC takes on cross-border spam
On Tuesday, December 20th, the FTC is going to announce a cross-border initiative with the Canadian Competition Bureau and several state Attorneys General to combat illegal spam. See media alert.
The initiative is being launched in conjunction with Alan Curry's Proxypot project. His site explains that:
"An open proxy honeypot (proxypot) is a server that pretends to be an open proxy, taking requests from bad people to do bad things, and responding with a simulation instead of doing the evil deed. The goal is to fool the bad people into thinking they've done their bad thing and got away with it, while actually they didn't do it, and they got caught anyway!"
According to a recent criminal complaint filed against spammers:
"[A]ny access of Mr. Curry's proxypot for the purposes of sending bulk email would constitute an attempted violation of 18 USC 1037 (a) (2), in that it would indicate an attempt to use a protected computer to transmit unsolicited commercial e-mail."
See 2004 NPR report about spam prosecutions that includes an interview with Mr. Curry.
In terms of legal issues with running a proxypot, the Proxypot site notes that:
"A spammer, or spam-friendly law enforcement agency, might decide that a proxypot is a "wiretap" and haul you into court. Yes, there is a question as to whether, when someone is using your communication equipment without your permission, you have the right to find out what they're using it for. What do you call a million lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? Answer"
Yes, we couldn't resist the lawyer joke.
The federal wiretapping statute is here.
