Eclectical Engineering

The firm E360 Insight LLC describes itself as “…a marketing solutions company specializing in highly effective, multichannel direct marketing.” At least one of those channels appears to be devoted to litigating against any and all parties who attempt to block its marketing e-mailings. The latest chapter in E360’s continuing courtroom saga involves the cable internet giant Comcast; E360 has filed suit against Comcast in an Illinois court for blocking E360’s advertising e-mails. Documentation for the case is posted at the indispensable SpamSuite.com website. (more…)

Just what sort of a person is a “chickenboner,” and what color hat does he wear? What is an “MX,” and why is going directly to one considered to be bad form? What does one do with something called a “teergrube?” When you’re trying to come to grips with a complex subject, it’s helpful to have a glossary. That’s why I’ve maintained my own list of terms often found in the study of e-mail spam. I’ve been collecting them for some years, and have uploaded the latest version to http://www.rickconner.net/spamweb/glossary.html; it contains nearly 200 terms from “419” to “zombie,” with derivations, remarks, and extensive cross-reference links.

An “alternative entrepreneur” seizes on a popular new communications technology and uses it to promote dubious and potentially dangerous wares; when his drumming gets too shrill, even the government is forced to sit up and take notice, and they promptly shut him down. Undeterred, he moves his operations outside the country and finds that he can actually reach even more people with his pitches, and becomes vastly wealthier. Sounds like internet spam, right? Well, yes it does, but it is also an apt summary of the career of the infamous John Romulus Brinkley, a quack doctor who used the infant technology of AM broadcast radio throughout the first half of the 20th century to advertise his controversial (and medically groundless) treatments to improve male virility. (more…)

To the list of items offered to me via spam promotion, I can now add designer footwear. While the product may be new (to me), however, the M.O. is typical of the criminal drugs/penis/watches spammers that have come to predominate my inbox over the past few years. (more…)

In a 4-3 decision (PDF here) on February 29, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Jeremy Jaynes for violations of Virginia’s anti-spam law. The decision presumably moves Jaynes one step closer to serving a nine-year sentence on the charges. The court rejected Jaynes’ claims (also made to the Virginia Court of Appeals) that his activities were constitutionally-protected free speech, and that the Virginia law represented a excessive restraint on interstate commerce (Jaynes sent his e-mails from neighboring North Carolina). (more…)