To borrow a part of a thought from
Mark Naples' commentary in MediaDailyNews today, the current spam crisis is indeed
reminiscent of the privacy problems a few years back: we just can't seem to be able to stop talking about it, and everyone is getting involved. Offering anti-spam solutions and policies is the new
"in" thing to do. We'll soon start seeing business cards with titles like "Chief Anti-Spam Officer" on them. Frankly, it all seems silly and inadequate to me.
Take Hotmail, for
example. The company this week said it would offer users the ability to block HTML images in emails from senders not in their contact lists. Why? Because there is a widespread belief that spammers use
web beacons (one-pixel HTML images) to authenticate email addresses they send spam to. Does anyone really think this measure is going to curb spam? I hope not, because it won't.
The
truth is, spammers couldn't care less about the cleanliness of their lists. I honestly don't think they take the time to make sure masha@mediapost.com really exists - if it does, "great!" if not, "who
cares, she might clean out her inbox tomorrow, but until then, there's always bob@someotherdomain.net." The way I see it, spammers' alleged use of web beacons as authentication devices is simply an
excuse used by ISPs who are unwilling to solve the problem.
What Hotmail's new offering will do (providing the average email user is web-savvy enough to figure out what it's for, which
I doubt), is severely diminish the efforts of legitimate email marketers by blocking all HTML, so even when masha@mediapost.com signs up for Cooking.com's HTML newsletter, the first one will get
blocked. And that is what most folks refer to as throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
What it really comes down to, as I've said repeatedly and what Mark advocated this morning,
is money. ISPs have to step up to the plate and figure out a way to make it too expensive for spammers to spam. I'm willing to bet anything that legitimate email marketers would be willing to pay
decent money to make sure their messages are delivered. As Advertising.com's CEO Scott Ferber told me yesterday in an interview about his company joining the NAI Email Coalition, email is a valuable medium, and "paying to play is not a bad idea."
It can't be
impossible. I'd love to hear from the ISPs on this one.