Anti-Spammers Go On The Offensive, But Are Accused Of Spamming Themselves

from the oops dept

Lots of stories today about consumer groups petitioning the FTC to stop spam. I had hesitated posting it, because I wasn't sure if this was just a bunch of PR or if it really could make a difference. Right now I'm leaning towards it just being a bunch of PR. As an interesting sidenote, the group stupidly set up their website to automatically respond to anyone who signed up (even if they declined to be added to the mailing list) by emailing them to say they were added to a mailing list. This, obviously, was the wrong message to send to people who have just signed up to support banning spam, and has some folks accusing the anti-spammers of spamming. Of course, it appears it was a pretty simple mistake that has been corrected. The groups are blaming the web designer who they say "didn't understand" - though, you have to wonder what sort of instructions an anti-spam group gave its web designer if he didn't understand that they shouldn't spam people. I do think the vaguely biblical quote from the guy at the Cato institute calling the anti-spammers a bunch of hypocrites is a bit overboard. Update: The groups in question have gone on the offensive calling the AP report dead wrong and that no one spammed anyone.

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