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Spam Project, Forum Day 1, Transcipt of Testimony, 04-30-03, Matter No

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Spam Project, Forum Day 1, Transcipt of Testimony, 04-30-03, Matter No 1 OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT PROCEEDING FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION MATTER NO. P024407 TITLE SPAM PROJECT PLACE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20580 DATE APRIL 30, 2003 PAGES 1 THROUGH 309 FTC SPAM FORUM -- DAY ONE SECOND VERSION FOR THE RECORD, INC. 603 POST OFFICE ROAD, SUITE 309 WALDORF, MARYLAND 20602 (301)870-8025 1 FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 2 I N D E X For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301)870-8025 2 1 2 Introduction to Spam Page 2 3 E-mail Address Gathering Page 78 4 Falsity in Sending of Spam Page 173 5 Open Relays/Open Proxies/FromMail Scripts Page 226 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 P R O C E E D I N G S 25 - - - - - For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301)870-8025 3 1 MS. HARRINGTON: Good morning. I'm Eileen 2 Harrington, and I'm very happy to welcome all of you to 3 this Spam forum. Before I turn this over to the 4 Chairman, we have some housekeeping announcements. 5 First of all, how many have one of these? Turn 6 them off right now. We have a special honing device in 7 this room that will capture your wireless address and 8 Spam it incessantly -- 9 (Group laughter.) 10 MS. HARRINGTON: -- if you don't turn it off 11 right now -- right now -- right now -- right now -- right 12 now -- turn it off. 13 Secondly, we've got some refreshments in the 14 hall for breaks, and they were very generously provided 15 by AOL, AT&T Wireless, Brightmail, Earthlink, EPrivacy 16 Group, SpamCon Foundation, Word to the Wise and YAHOO, 17 and we appreciate that a lot. 18 Third, this is a government building, more or 19 less, and we have some information that we need to 20 provide you at the request of our security people. In 21 the very, very, very unlikely event that we have to have 22 an evacuation, there are two exits, and both of them can 23 be reached from the hallway that you entered through. 24 One exit is straight back; the other is to the right and 25 out the front door, as you came in. That's how to leave For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301)870-8025 4 1 if we have an evacuation. 2 Of course, our most special thing is sheltering 3 in place, which we practice. And in the really unlikely 4 event that we have to do that, go to the hall, so there's 5 coffee and refreshments. 6 (Group laughter.) 7 MS. HARRINGTON: It will all be fine. Now, it 8 is my great pleasure to introduce my boss, Tim Muris, who 9 is the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. The 10 Chairman, a couple of years ago, when he took the helm, 11 worked with his colleagues to develop a very clear 12 privacy agenda, and key on that agenda is looking at 13 Spam, taking action against deceptive Spam and working to 14 make sure we understand fully the nature of the problem. 15 So, today's forum, in a very real sense, comes 16 as the result of that effort, of efforts that the other 17 members of the Commission have made and I am just very 18 pleased to introduce Chairman Muris, who will kick things 19 off. 20 Mr. Chairman. 21 (Applause.) 22 CHAIRMAN MURIS: Good morning. We have some 23 special guests here whom I'll introduce at the end of my 24 remarks. 25 Welcome to our forum on Spam E-mail and thank For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301)870-8025 5 1 you very much for joining us. I'd especially like to 2 thank our distinguished panelists for coming from all 3 over the world to share their insights and expertise. 4 We convened this forum to explore the issue of 5 unsolicited commercial e-mail, or Spam. Since I became 6 Chairman, protecting consumers' privacy has become a 7 principal focus of the FTC. Consumers are concerned 8 about their privacy, including unwarranted intrusions 9 into their daily lives. Spam is one of the biggest such 10 intrusions. 11 Everyone enjoys reading e-mail they want, 12 whether messages from friends or news about a sale at 13 your favorite store. Today, though, our inboxes are 14 clogged with unwanted, objectionable and fraudulent 15 messages. Spam is threatening to destroy the benefits of 16 e-mail. 17 What makes Spam different from other forms of 18 marketing and why do we receive so much of it? One 19 reason is that unlike telemarketing or direct mail, with 20 e-mail it's easier to hide one's identity and to cross 21 international borders. 22 E-mail can be sent from anywhere to anyone in 23 the world, often without the recipient knowing who sent 24 it. The class structure of e-mail is another difference 25 between Spam and other forms of marketing. There are low For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301)870-8025 6 1 to no costs to send additional Spam. Instead, recipients 2 and internet service providers bear most of the costs. 3 Because of these facts, as we know from our 4 personal inboxes, the volume of Spam has increased 5 dramatically. Even the FTC's inboxes have experienced 6 this increase. Since 1998, the FTC has maintained a 7 mailbox for consumers to forward their Spam. The 8 messages are saved in a box-like computer storage device 9 that we have dubbed the refrigerator, because it looks 10 like a refrigerator. 11 During 2001, we received an average of 10,000 12 messages per day. Last year, that figure climbed to over 13 47,000. Currently we receive, into the refrigerator, 14 over 130,000 messages each day. 15 In February 2002, I announced the FTC's first 16 systematic crackdown on deceptive Spam. Since then, we 17 have tackled Spam on three fronts: Law enforcement, 18 education and research. To date, the FTC has announced 19 48 law enforcement actions targeting deceptive Spam. 20 Soon, we will announce a settlement in the first FTC law 21 enforcement action against false e-mail remove 22 representations and e-mail spoofing, by which Spammers 23 hide their identity through forging the from or reply 24 lines in e-mail messages. 25 In this case, the Commission has obtained its For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301)870-8025 7 1 first ever Spam ban -- a ban prohibiting the defendants 2 from ever again sending unsolicited commercial e-mail. 3 4 Moreover, on May 15 in Dallas, along with our 5 Southwest Netforce Partners, we will announce new law 6 enforcement targeting online fraud and deceptive Spam as 7 well as a new initiative to address the pervasive problem 8 of open relays. 9 Besides ramping up law enforcement, the FTC has 10 disseminated informative, high-impact materials to 11 educate consumers and businesses on Spam. 12 Our Spam website, www.ftc.gov\spam, has a 13 wealth of information about how to avoid Spam, in the 14 first instance, and what to do if you receive it. 15 Finally, our research informs our education in 16 law enforcement. There seems to be more talk than actual 17 knowledge about Spam. Thus, we conducted the remove-me 18 surf to examine removal representations in Spam. We 19 found that, contrary to the belief that responding to 20 Spam guaranteed that you would receive more e-mail, 63 21 percent of the removal links and addresses in our sample 22 did not function. 23 Additionally, in our Spam harvest, we examined 24 how computer harvesting programs pick up consumers' 25 publicly posted e-mail addresses, leading to more Spam. For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301)870-8025 8 1 In one instance, an e-mail address we used in a chat room 2 received its first Spam message eight minutes after 3 entering that room -- eight minutes. 4 From these findings, we could tell consumers 5 what online activities placed them at risk for receiving 6 Spam and what they might do to avoid it. 7 Yesterday, we announced another research effort 8 -- the FTC Spam Study. In this study, we examined 1,000 9 Spam messages collected randomly from three sources: Our 10 Spam database in the refrigerator; the Spam we received 11 at the addresses used in the Spam harvest; and Spam that 12 reached FTC employee computers. 13 We analyzed the messages based on the type of 14 product or service offered, the indicia of deception in 15 the content of the messages, and the indicia of deception 16 in the from and subject lines. We found that 20 percent 17 of the Spam contained offers for investment or business 18 opportunities, including work-at-home offers, franchise 19 opportunities or offers for securities. Eighteen percent 20 of the Spam offered adult-oriented products or services. 21 Of these adult messages, about one-fifth 22 included images of nudity that appeared automatically in 23 the text. Further, 17 percent of the Spam involved 24 finance, including credit cards, refinancing and 25 insurance. Together the investment business opportunity, For The Record, Inc. Waldorf, Maryland (301)870-8025 9 1 adult and finance offers comprised 55 percent of our 2 sample. 3 We also determined how many messages appeared 4 misleading. Using evidence from past law enforcement 5 actions and our own efforts, we identified specific 6 representations likely to be false.
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