About the same time that Colorado's do-not-call telemarketer law went national in late June, state and federal prosecutors around the nation began cracking down on the largest online spam-meisters. Rather than wait for the House and Senate to reconcile the S.877 Can-Spam Act, prosecutors worked with local police forces to conduct raids, complete with armed tactical squads, on known malicious hackers and mass spam remailer specialists. There's a vicarious thrill in seeing a spam king with an M9 aimed at his forehead on the evening news, but is it fair?

Some commercial marketers are bemoaning the simultaneous closing off of telemarketing and e-mail channels, objecting strongly to being lumped alongside the proliferators of viruses and worms. Sure, it's a gamble to trust a know-nothing body like the U.S. Congress to craft an anti-spam bill that is both comprehensive and fair. But spammers have no one but themselves to blame for being treated like common criminals.

One of the key aspects of Senate Bill 877, and similar legislation proposed in both houses, is to demand honesty in return addresses and the criminalization of anonymous remailer functions. While this would do little to stop those spammers that have moved to offshore remailers, the federal government is pledging to work with the European Union and the United Nations to codify common legislation globally to end the anonymous sending of e-mail offers from sources worldwide.

Anonymous remailers physically based in the United States, however, have little excuse for feeling harassed. Several have even gone so far as to use the same mail spoof sourcing that malicious hackers have used to spread the SoBig virus.

Here at CMP, we've been plagued by many floods of SoBig titled "Application" or "Movie." More recently, offers of porn have gone out under a CMP domain, indicating that marketers have abused the spoof practice. This is fraud, on a felony level. E-mail marketers using this tactic deserve to be marched off to jail, often under the armed escort that prosecutors are using to score brownie points with the public.

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