ISPs Escalate War on Spam

Spammers beware: Major Internet service providers are sick and tired of your clogging their networks, annoying their customers, and eating their revenue--and they're trying to stop your intrusive ways.

"We are fed up with spam and we HATE it as much as you do!" America Online wrote in a message posted to its members this week.

In fact, AOL is so annoyed by spam that it has announced a special antispam task force. The ISP also plans to roll out new spam-fighting tools and to push for tougher laws to combat the unsolicited e-mail plague.

Microsoft Battles, Too

AOL's declaration of war comes on the heels of news that Microsoft is corralling even more suspected spammers and hauling them to court. The software giant filed suit against unnamed defendants in a California court last week for allegedly harvesting the e-mail addresses of users of its Hotmail service for the purpose of spamming.

What's more, a Microsoft representative says the company will be lodging even more suits against spammers soon.

And now AOL is taking spammers to task. It's not surprising, considering that the heavyweight ISP says its filters are blocking 780 million pieces of junk mail each day from users' in-boxes.

"We are redirecting ourselves to the spam fight with purpose," says Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesperson. The company is reporting to its members this week on its efforts to stop spam as feedback to its recently launched "Tell Us" campaign, Graham says.

"Fighting spam was far and away the top issue for our members," Graham says.

The company is taking a multifaceted approach to the issue, by going through the courts, lobbying for tough legislation, and working with other ISPs.

"While there is no silver bullet, we are taking a double-barreled approach," Graham says.

Troops Rally

The onslaught of spam, which some researchers have predicted will overtake legitimate e-mail in users' in-boxes in coming years, has become a serious focus for both e-mail users and service providers in recent months.

The deluge even led to the first-ever spam filter conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in January.

While experts currently disagree on which solutions are the best for stopping spam, they do agree that user pressure on ISPs is one of the most effective ways to turn up the heat on spammers. If the actions by Microsoft and AOL this week are any indication, it may be so.