Automating Spam Reporting in Australia

ozmanjusri writes "The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) and a local ISV have teamed up to test an automated spam reporting system. An Australian software group has produced the SpamMatters plugin for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook express to allow single-click submission of spam to the ACA database. The database is able to process and analyse large amounts of spam and use the information to track down spammers."

extension for thunderbird

[astrodud]

This would be a perfect example of a potential thunderbird extension. Is anyone working on this?

Re:extension for thunderbird

[OAB_X]

Im sure if it was mentioned on mozillazine and once the protocall was discovered/published, it would be available rather soon.

ACA = Aussie FTC?

[TFGeditor]

I hope the Australian Communications Authority is more "game" about hunting down and killing spammers than the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Maybe they'll learn something from the Oz guys.

But "report as spam" is an invalid test

[dmorin]

I send out a big newsletter for my company. It is all opt in. People still hit "report as spam." They may hit it the first issue of the newsletter they get, they may hit it 6 months after they subscribed. Heck, they sometimes hit it for their welcome letter. Think about that. If you're seeing my welcome letter, you subscribed to my newsletter 5 minutes ago. Maybe you don't check your email constantly, but I mean, come on, what else do you expect me to do?

Too many users use the spam button as the trash button. Even gmail, I notice, offers one button "Report spam" but you have to select "move to trash" from a dropdown. You can't penalize vendors who are playing by the rules just because the customer has become bored and is too lazy to hit the real unsubscribe button (which, by the way, is also in all the emails I send out).

I would love to see a usability test where somebody could go to AOL or other big ISP with such a button and basically ask, "Ok, you just hit the spam button. Why? What about that makes you think it was spam?" and see what sort of info could be retrieved. Personally, I will go so far as to hit the button for companies who, even though I just bought something from them, are now sending me unsolicited stuff and never offered me the chance to opt out. The Disney store comes to mind.

But if I voluntarily opted in, can I really now say that it is spam, even if I have never tried to unsubscribe myself?

Couple the "report as spam" button with a "this is a well behaved email" button so that you at least stand the chance at getting two sides of the story, maybe. I can put an email address in my addressbook / whitelist, sure - but if everybody else at my ISP is hitting the spam button, then eventually I'm going to lose that battle because only the spam complaints are getting countedm, not the validations.

Re:But "report as spam" is an invalid test

[catman]

Use confirmed opt-in. If you don't, you not only risk the spam label, you actually invite abuse.

An opt-in click should result in ONE e-mail containing a unique code, asking the client to return it if she really wants to subscribe. If that e-mail does not get returned to you, delete that client address and move on.

Save the returned confirmation message for use when people complain anyway - and some will.

Without confirmed opt-in I can sign on any address at all for your newsletter!

Nobody with a clue will

OK, but who still uses Outlook [Express] ?!?

[ivi]

This will impress me when it addresses the
non-MS eMail clients on this planet, both
Windows & OSS based.

Use Outlook Express = get hit by virii & worms

[ivi]

So, one [sometimes] has to -open- a suspected
spam message to confirm its Spam-nature...

Doing that when using OE can mean getting hit
by the "flavor of the day" virus or worm.

Who needs that ?!?

I have a spammer would like to report....

[qwiatz]

[e-mail]
Thanks for the full inbox johnny [smh.com.au]