IJMC - CAUCE for Diane

Diane, better late than never, as my mom always likes to say (usually 
when I have forgotten to return a phone call...). So, later instead of 
never, here's a message a long-time subscriber asked me to send out. It's 
for a good cause, and I'm not talking about that non-existant 3-year old 
with cancer we keep hearing about. Although the cookies aren't bad. 
Anyway, read 'em and weep, as spam usually does to me.              -dave





Hi Dave.

I hope you will be willing to pass this email address and this URL along.

Everyone gets Unsolicited Commercial Email, or UCE, otherwise known as
SPAM.  Usually you delete it unread, or you try to track down the origin of
the email and ask them to take your email address off of their list (to no
avail), or they have some kind of "remove-it" website that is shut down and
will not remove you from ANYTHING (but is probably collecting your email
for further spamming purposes).  99% of the time you will find that the UCE
is NON-COMPLIANT to the current laws governing UCE.

There are ways to help STOP this flood of UCE - one is to visit the CAUCE
website at http://www.cauce.org/ - this is a not-for-profit organization
that will educate you to the laws currently on the books concerning UCE,
and also concerning PROPOSED laws that are now slated to be discussed on
the congressional floor.  They offer information on how to contact your
congressional representatives and let them know you want this UCE flood to
STOP!  This site is also useful in that if you OWN or operate a server you
can get a free copy of their software which will help you filter out any
UCE before it passes through your system (more details on that on the CAUCE
website).

I urge people who wish to help stop UCE to go to the CAUCE website and see
what has been happening in Washington DC to combat unsolicited commercial
email fraud.

The Federal Trade Commission has ALSO been working to help stop email fraud
and unsolicited commercial email - and has an email address that you can
send FRAUDULENT or NON-COMPLIANT UCE to - they will (reportedly)
investigate these companies and lean on them to comply.  

Here is the address to send UCE to:  uce@ftc.gov

A few tips:  

	1.)  ONLY send UCE after you have ascertained that it is 
	fraudulent.  If the UCE does not have a place where you can
	go to remove your email from their list, even if it claims 
	to be compliant, this is a non-compliant UCE.

	2.)  Try to send email first to the people who sent you the 
	UCE to ask them (politely, please) to take your email addy 
	off of their list.  If the email bounces back as 
	undeliverable, well, that's a big clue that you have 
	fraudulent UCE which you can forward to the FTC.

	3.)  If you DO send an email to the spammer, let them know 
	that you are sending a copy of their UCE to the FTC to 
	notify	them of non-compliance (if, of course, they do not
 	allow you an "out" with a remove-it website or email 
	address that works).

	4.)  Send copies of all correspondence to the FTC at the
 	above email address.  The FTC will not answer you, but 
	believe me, the stream of non-compliant UCE will make a 
	statement that they really do need to change the laws 
	governing spamming.

CAUCE has other tips and suggestions.  I hope you will join the fight
against unsolicited commercial email instead of "just hitting delete"...
This will help us ALL...

Thanks, Dave.  And thanks to everyone for their time.

:)
--Diane F. Fisli
dfisli@flash.net
http://musicats.com/