or 215-573-3333 (off-campus).
Having said that, pretty much any unsolicited e-mail you receive
that pitches you products, goods, services, etc. for sale can be considered
spam. When you do some things on the web, such as register new software
or buy products from legitimate vendors, they often present you with a
check box (usually pre-checked for your "convenience", meaning
you have to actively un-check it to decline) that says something like
"Send me information on deals and specials", and the box is
often easily missed due to the way it's placed on the page. This can result
in your receiving commercial e-mail that you don't remember "soliciting",
but it's not really spam, since technically, you did ask them to
send it to you, even if you didn't realize it. Most reputable web vendors
and marketers, though, will honor requests to be removed from their lists.
Spammers, on the other hand, rarely do (more on that below).
What if whatever it is the "spam" is selling
Although the people doing the selling may not be entirely honest business
people, in most cases the products, services, etc. contained in spam messages
are, on the surface at least, entirely legal. There are exceptions, though,
that include (but are not limited to):
- Child pornography - or more accurately, material depicting
sexual activity involving a minor. Owning or distributing material of
this sort is a Federal offense in the U.S., and holds similar status
in most countries around the world.
- Illegal drugs and controlled substances - such as heroin, marijuana,
- "Pirated" software, CDs, DVDs, games - sometimes
called "warez", these are illegally copied programs, albums,
movies, etc.offered at cut-rate prices, or even free in some cases
- Fraud - this includes chain letters of any sort, "pyramid"
schemes (sometimes called "Ponzi" schemes) and, in general,
fraudulent misrepresentation of the goods, services, terms of payment,
If you receive a spam e-mail or newsgroup posting that you believe is
promoting illegal materials and/or fraud, or otherwise constitutes criminal
activity, report it to Penn Public Safety at 511 (on-campus)
or 215-573-3333 (off-campus). There is one notable exception
to this, though - the infamous "419" or "Nigerian
Scam". This is a well-known "fee fraud" scheme that
has been around for more than 20 years, but has multiplied many times
over in the form of spam. We have a special page for it at http://www.upenn.edu/computing/security/advisories/419scam.php.
In general, though, do not report Nigerian Scam messages.
Isn't "spam" itself illegal?
A number of states and local jurisdictions have enacted laws aimed at
prosecuting people who send spam, however, a close reading of these laws
shows that they are actually laws against sending e-mail with forged or
fraudulent headers, and make no reference to content.
In 2003, Congress enacted anti-spam legislation that has come to be known as the CAN-SPAM Act, which states that in order for a commercial e-mail message to be considered legal, it must:
- Contain no false or misleading message header information - the "To:", "From:" and "Received:" (message routing) headers must be accurate
- Contain no deceptive or misleading "Subject:" header information
- Provide the recipient with a valid "opt-out" method to request the sender stop sending additional messages
- Identify itself as a commercial message and include the sender's correct, valid postal ("snailmail") address
As long as a message meets the above criteria, a commercial e-mail message generated in the US may meet the definition of "spam" - commercial and unsolicited - yet be perfectly legal. The fact, of course, is that the overwhelming majority of "spam" contains all sorts of bogus headers and misleading information. However,
the larger problem is that even if valid, constitutional laws exist, they
are to a large extent unenforceable because:
- U.S. law enforcement agencies do not have the time, resources and
manpower to pursue what would likely amount to millions of individual
- A major portion of spam sent to U.S. addressees comes from f