Political spam

[Steve]

x-no-archive: yes



When candidates spam

A Mass E-Mailing by a New Jersey Republican Stirs Up an Online
Hornet's Nest.

Deborah Scoblionkov
Salon 2/19/99


On Feb. 4, thousands of outspoken and fiercely opinionated computer
users around the world opened their e-mail to read: "You are
receiving this message because you have participated in discussions
about political issues on the Internet and having done so, have
solicited contact on the subject. If you wish to be removed from our
once-a-month future mailings, a simple reply with the word REMOVE
will suffice." 

Like so many other e-mail messages, it was spam. But the source
wasn't a multi-level marketer or some clown selling bulk e-mail lists
-- it was a New Jersey politician testing the waters for a statewide
campaign. 

Murray Sabrin is a Republican with his eye on the U.S. Senate seat
that incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg announced this week he will
vacate. Sabrin used to be a Libertarian, and in his 1997 campaign for
governor against Christine Todd Whitman he was the first candidate
from that party in his state to raise enough contributions to qualify
for matching funds. 

Spammers often defend their activity as an exercise of free speech,
but many people online consider spam to be theft and trespass as well
as an invasion of privacy. "Speech isn't free when it comes
postage-due" is one anti-spam motto. Since Sabrin is not only a
former Libertarian but also a professor of finance who has stated
that "private property rights" are among his "core values," he might
be expected to be sensitive to the spam issue. 

Instead, once the mass e-mailing by Sabrin's committee -- along with
spam postings to many unrelated Usenet newsgroups (like
soc.culture.japan) -- had sparked the inevitable flurry of flames and
complaints, his office responded with further curt provocations. 

One anti-spam activist complained directly to www.murraysabrin.com
with the subject "SPAMMERS belong in jail NOT public office!" The
following reply from someone on Sabrin's committee was forwarded to
the Spam-L mailing list: 

Nice reply, just one problem: This is OUR E-mail account. We pay for
it. We may use it to communicate our thoughts to whomever has an
e-mail address because the Internet is the equivalent of a public
square. You can listen, not listen or ask us to remove you. Since the
last item is obviously what you seek, we have done so. Just
understand that your e-mailbox is the equivalent of your tv set: it
is open for broadcasts that you can choose to receive or not. Good
day. 

Another angry victim received this response and posted it to the
anti-spam newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.email (known as NANAE): 

Thank you for writing. We're kind of stunned you took such great
pains to reply since hitting the "DELETE" key would have been far
faster. Not to belittle your point, but we started wondering amongst
ourselves if you also wrote letters to anyone sending you junk mail
through the post office, or if you write to television networks
complaining about tv commercials? ... In the future, quit your
belly-aching and use the DELETE key. 

Needless to say, these responses did not endear Sabrin to the spam
fighters of the Net, who don't take well to having to request to be
removed from mailing lists they'd never signed up for -- and who,
when told to hit Delete, will proceed to get the spammer's account
deleted by his Internet service provider. 

Sabrin's spam urged recipients to visit his Web site, where visitors
were invited to post comments to a message board. Many gleefully took
the opportunity to complain about spam and point out that it's
anathema to libertarian ideals -- but their messages mysteriously
disappeared, deleted by the webmaster. 

The flood of flames and complaints was so great that within 24 hours
of sending the spam, Sabrin posted an apology to his message board
with the title: "This is a PUBLIC APOLOGY for the SPAM sent to people
via the Internet." It read: "When we created our Exploratory
Committee, we got assistance from people with various skills --
including computer skills. Unfortunately, the youth who assisted us
with our Web site took it upon himself to contact folks who did not
seek such contact. Please accept my sincerest apology and rest
assured this will not occur ever again." 

But hours after the apology was posted, people were still receiving
Sabrin's spam. One California electrical engineer, Cameron Spitzer,
posted evidence of continued spamming in a message to Sabrin's
bulletin board titled "What a LIAR! He's STILL SPAMMING, AFTER
posting his phony 'apology!'" But his message was quickly deleted.
Soon afterward, Spitzer received what he called a "love note" in his
mail box, from abuse at murraysabrin.com, accusing him of trespass,
libel and defamation. 

The next day, the message board (and Sabrin's apology) disappeared
from Sabrin's site. It was replaced by a moderated bulletin board
without any hint of the controversy that was raging. Although the
spam appeared to have stopped, the threatening e-mails from Sabrin's
committee to the complainers continued. 

Sabrin was lucky that his Web site host, cihost.com, let him off with
a warning against spamming. The Internet service provider used to
send the spams was not so merciful. They had originated from an
Internet account at Erols Internet (owned by RCN), using a forged
address, Exploratory.Committee at erols.com. Such forgery, in addition
to violating the terms of service of nearly every Internet service
provider, is illegal in two states (California and Washington). 

Erols is known for its strict anti-spam policies, enforced by an
employee known simply as "Afterburner," who has achieved demigod
status in the anti-spam world. His response to those who complained
about Sabrin's spam was short and succinct, leaving all the gory
details to the readers' imagination: "This spammer has had his
account turned into a thick, yellow spray. Sorry for the trouble.
Yours, Afterburner RCN Abuse Guy." 

After the Erols account was nuked, the legal threats to people who
complained about the spam to Sabrin became even more hysterical: "Our
account with Erols HAS been temporarily suspended or revoked and
unless they restore it, we will file suit against them in Federal
District Court, naming YOU as 'John Doe' ... We suggest you hire a
lawyer and prepare to defend yourself against our claims of 1)
Violating our civil right to free speech; 2) Tortuous interference
with our business affairs; and 3) interfering in our interstate
commerce." 

In a show of solidarity with their comrades, other anti-spammers
immediately wrote to info at murraysabrin.com demanding to be sued as
well. They received this comment in response: "If you are merely
injecting yourself into this situation because you feel riled about
our possible legal action against others, we suggest you butt-out." 

Then, things got even stranger. A search for Sabrin's name in
DejaNews revealed that not only had he spammed Usenet newsgroups, but
apparently someone in Australia who'd received the spam had taken
revenge by posting messages that forged Sabrin's name to alt.sex
newsgroups. And results from search engine inquiries turned up an old
Web page touting Sabrin's 1997 campaign; it listed an 800 number
that, while no longer associated with Sabrin's campaign, was now
promoting a pornographic 900 service. 

The denizens of NANAE were spellbound by the unfolding drama. As one
contributor observed: "Readers of this newsgroup have over the last
few days ... witnessed events related to the exploratory campaign of
Dr. Sabrin which seem so bizarre that people are wondering whether
someone is deliberately sabotaging his campaign." 

One concerned participant was moved to write directly to Sabrin:
"Murray, Someone using your campaign name is sending aggressive,
badly spelled replies to complaints about your spamming political
messages." A few actually called Sabrin to make certain it was not a
political dirty trick; they were distressed to learn that it was not.
Others simply relished the sadistic spectacle of watching a spammer
squirm: "Sounds like the heat is starting to get to them. Time to
pour on more gasoline ... Well, if they insist on lighting up their
stogies in fireworks factories, what further damage could any of us
do? Hell, now they've started flicking burning matches around at
random. I just hope they survive to learn from the experience." 

One participant, inspired by Sabrin to create a Web page devoted to
politicians who spam, explained: "I've got a live target in my
sights, and I'm not going to let up. The time for apologies is past,
this bastard is going to pay." 

Finally, last Tuesday, Sabrin announced that he'd fired the volunteer
who'd spammed and issued a lengthy new public apology both on his Web
site and to the NANAE newsgroup, taking more responsibility for the
incident than his initial apology. 

Magnanimous in victory, some NANAE-ites laid down their weapons,
accepted the apology and wished Sabrin well on his campaign. Others
didn't let him off so easily: "That's about as sincere an apology as
'I am sorry I ran over your cat with my car, so I fired my mechanic
and slapped his wife.'" One NANAE regular cautioned against the need
for retribution: "I mean, if this Murray Sabrin is speaking the
truth, one can say the guy responsible for the spamming got fired and
his one-year prepaid account at Erols was terminated. Severed heads
and rotting corpses on poles along the Internet information highway
would be nice too, but we'll take what we have :-)" 

Sabrin is now philosophical about his foray into spamming. Although
he admits it was a mistake, he insists that his intentions were good
and innocent. "I thought it would be an effective way to disseminate
information," he explained after the brouhaha had calmed down. "I
thought the Internet was an open forum. I guess I was wrong." 

The politician seems to have been extremely naive about the culture
and interactive nature of the Internet. According to him, it was the
nastiness of the anti-spammers' flames that prompted the webmaster to
reply with empty threats of lawsuits. Those responses to the spam
were so vile and upsetting that Sabrin can't even bring himself to
repeat them: "When I disagree with someone," he says, "I do so in a
polite and civil manner." 

Sabrin is anxious to move forward with his political ambitions. He
now says he better understands the privacy and property rights issues
surrounding spam, and plans to educate others and work toward solving
the spam problem. He hopes to announce his campaign for U.S. Senate
sometime this summer. But if New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman
throws her hat in the ring, all the spam in the world may not help
him win the nomination.

Deborah Scoblionkov, a writer who has contributed to Wired News, the
New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer, prefers her spam fried
and crispy. 






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