One more letter to the RPSCA:
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Private & Confidential
> Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 15:01:27 +0000
> From: David Bowles <DBOWLES@rspca.org.uk>
> To: <yoz@yoz.com>
>
> Private & Confidential
>
> To FaxYourMP.com volunteers,
[SNIP!]
> I hope that the
> measures we have agreed to take above satisfy the issues that you have
> raised in your email.
>
They did indeed, which is why we've not said much on the topic since.
Thank you for your assurances.
Unfortunately, they were a few other matters that you, in turn, failed
to raise with us at the time and which have now come to our attention.
A few days ago, a colleague mailed us a report that had been posted to
the newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.sitings. This is an Internet
discussion area that acts as a clearing house for spam reports.
Spam, as I'm sure you are aware, is a terrible blight on the current
Internet. Fly-by-night companies take money to send out millions of
unsolicited messages to addresses they have gathered using
indiscriminate methods (methods which are illegal under the EU's Data
Protection regime), often taking advantage of security breaches in
remote computers to do it.
Computer owners and ISPs together spend millions trying to hold back the
tide of these spam mails. Unfortunately, as long as there is money in
providing such a service, spammers will continue.
Mostly those paying for these mass mailing are less than reputable
types: which is why most spam today consists of unsavory pornography
come-ons, dodgy snake-oil salesmen, international banking scams and
under-the-counter pharmaceuticals.
Oh, and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The spam report we were forwarded (together with two more, links to
which I enclose at the bottom of this email), are of special concern tous. They are part of your campaign against fireworks and explicitly
mention how you, the RSPCA, will instruct those clicking on the mail how
to "fax their MP online".
I assume that it is our service that you are referring to here, and a
check of your site indicates that you do indeed link to us:
http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/ContentSer...cleid=1024473499362... although you appear to have removed this link from the page that the
spam points to, apparently quite recently.
It's nice to know somebody feels some degree of responsibility for their
previous actions. Nonetheless, the damage has already been done.
You have been indiscriminately mailing requests - and are continuing to
do so - requesting people to use our service. You have been spamming,
and implicating us in this behaviour by association.
I understand that whoever provided this service to you probably assured
you that your message was going out only to bona fide concerned British
citizens who would be curious to read about your fireworks campaign.
Should they try this line on you again, you may wish to ask them:
1. Why, out of the three reports of spam that we have read so far,
only one is in the UK (and its recipient says that he has never used
this email account to grant any such permission)?
2. Why the other two recipients are from the United States of
America - one from North Virginia (which is famously unrepresented
in the House of Commons), and the other from Texas (where fireworks
are banned anyway)?
3. Why, in such an above board operation, the service used to send
the mail was registered in Guatemala, while the mailout company
themselves harken from Boca Raton, Florida (outside of EU data
protection controls)?
4. Why, exactly, a respected charity such as the RSPCA chooses to
send its campaign mails via, in turn, a dialup computer on the NTL
network, and an unsecured computer somewhere in Argentina?
The first time you abused our free service, we were happy to forgive you
- organisations and individuals new to the Internet often fail to
understand some of the social niceties.
But this goes beyond the pale. Not only is spamming one of the worst
practices any organisation can indulge in online, but the degree to
which you have spammed indicates that someone, either within your
organisation or paid by it, was fully aware of what they were doing, and
did it anyway.
We really can't be associated with such a rogue organisation as yours.
We've banned the RSPCA from FaxYourMP. Users clicking to our site from
yours will be redirected to a message explaining why we felt this was
necessary.
As this is the first time we have banned any organisation from our
services, we felt it rather deserved a press release. My understanding
is that I should include the following contact details:
RSPCA: David Bowles, International and Campaigns Head, +44 nnnn nnnnn nn
That is, unless you have someone else who can provide a better
explanation for what has gone on here.
I'm not sure what you can do to correct this matter. With the best will
in the world, your assurances don't appear to count for much.
Those spam reports:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=E18qw...rlet.dcs.hull.ac.ukhttp://groups.google.com/groups?selm=e82cn...WcjA%40giganews.comhttp://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20030...0cadeau.d-and-d.comYours sincerely,
Danny O'Brien
