Political spam

[Barb Weismann]

Look at
 http://www.ebase.org/case.html#op
for a case study of email campaign with good results.
Barb

On Mon, 22 Feb 1999, Steve wrote:

> 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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