If you hate spam you may have experienced a very pleasant surprise this week – the volume of unsolicited commercial email, a.k.a. spam, has dropped by almost 66% this week thanks to McColo Corp’s demise. McColo is a northern-California based hosting provider, which was responsible for nearly 75% of spam sent each day.
Great news, right? Yes, but you probably should not expect the lull to last very long. In September, following the downfall of Intercage (another northern-California hosting provider used by criminal spammers), Spammers were off the grid for only a few days before finding another home for their activities.
The legal fight against spam is multi-faced, but not very strong: 1) you have the Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which has been roundly criticized for its lack of enforcement, and 2) 37 states which have enacted some type of State Anti Spam Law, these laws have also been very poorly enforced.
Morale of the story: enjoy the drop off in spam this week, but gear up for an onslaught of unsolicited commercial email during the Holidays!
