I'm Guilty Until Proven Innocent

No doubt about it. "Spam" (unsolicited commercial email) threatens toparalyze and ultimately destroy the email system as itcurrently exists on the Internet. Anyone with an email address can attest to the fact thatthe avalanche of Spam has only increased in the last yearand shows no sign of stopping.However, the current system many Internet ServiceProviders (ISP's) use to deal with Spam may just destroythe Internet's email system long before the spammers do.Now, I won't deny that the weight of the Spam on anyISP's resources can rate very significant. It's been estimated that between 30-60% of all email nowsent is Spam! This means that 30-60% an ISP's system resources(bandwidth, hardware, system maintenance) go towardsdelivering messages nobody wants to receive. Out of self-defense, many ISP's turn to third partyservices like SpamCop, SPEWS (Spam Prevention EarlyWarning System), and SpamHaus to help them identifysources of spam and block the messages before their emailsystems get clogged. No Trial - No Defense - Guilty!In theory, it's a great system. In practice, it creates a situation resembling a witchhunt where the accused gets burned at the stake without atrial, let alone the ability to face their accuser.Here's how the system works.Let's say a business habitually sends legitimate email toits customers or prospects who asked to receive theemail.As long as nobody complains, life proceeds as normal.But then let's say one of those people forgets they optedin to the business's email list and reports an emailmessage as spam to one of the services I mentioned above.Result: the business gets blacklisted by one or more ofthese services and ISP's in turn automatically blockemail (legitimate email) sent by the business to itscustomers and opt-in subscribers. To make matters even worse, nobody at these anti-spamservices bothers to let the business know they've beenblacklisted. When the business finally discovers their status andtries to contact SpamCop, SPEWS or SpamHaus, the real funbegins.If the business does discover which service(s)blacklisted them, they'll find they can't call anyone onthe phone to discuss the problem. They also discover these services are totally unregulatedand there is no higher court of appeals.Any email responses from these services often contain asmug attitude of assumed guilt that scoffs at your claimsof innocence. Also, don't bother asking for the opportunity to faceyour accuser in order to prove your innocence becausethey get to hide behind a cloak of anonymity. Combining this attitude of assumed guilt with theinability to prove your innocence creates a recipe fordisaster for every legitimate business.Oh, by the way, while writing this article, I received 19spam email messages through an ISP monitored by all 3anti-spam services. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? In the end, the current system only creates opportunityfor abuse that targets legitimate businesses while thereal spammers just merrily keep sending their flood ofemail.