Bulletin!
This just in on the spam front! 2/1/2002

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced plans to 'attack' deceptive spam and opt-out notices. Howard Beales, the director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection announced the FTC will announce "law enforcement actions" regarding spam in a couple of weeks.

We expect the FTC to crack down on fraudulent return addresses. Most spam has false information in the return address or the opt-out instructions.

the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) said it hopes the agency will draw a line between spam and legitimate marketers. "That would help the industry rather than hurt the industry."

Early this month Californians won a victory in the fight against spam when a California appeals court upheld the state's anti-spam law, ruling that it does not violate a clause of the U.S. Constitution. The California law makes it a misdemeanor to send spam without either "ADV:" or "ADLT:" in the subject line for Advertisements or Adult advertisements respectively, making it much easier for individuals to block that kind of spam.

This FAQ does not fully address the SPAM issue but addresses InterStar's current policies toward SPAM. Extensive discussion on SPAM can be found at http://spam.abuse.net .

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What is InterStar's Policy toward SPAMer's?
Does InterStar give out email addresses?
How does InterStar enforce it's Anti-Spam policy?
Where can I find more information on SPAM?
Is there any screening through InterStar's mail server?

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What is InterStar's Policy toward SPAMer's?

InterStar enforces a strict anti-spam policy for users of our network. Unfortunately, we are not able to enforce this policy outside our network.

Currently InterStar implements Anti-SPAM rules, Filters, and RBLs on all of our mail servers. 

Does InterStar give out email addresses?

Absolutely not! We rigidly protect our users right to privacy and under no circumstances provide email address to other vendors.

How does InterStar enforce it's Anti-Spam policy.

Depending on the severity of the infraction, your account may be terminated without notice or refund.

Where can I find more information on SPAM..

Further information can be obtained at http://spam.abuse.net . We encourage you to visit this site.

Is there any screening through InterStar's mail server?

Yes, we put all mail through about 500 tests to see if it matches known spam and it is also filtered by a RealTimeBlackList which is managed nationally and there are checks to see if we are getting a lot of mail from any one source. We have helped to nearly kill off thousands of viruses running around on the net. Yes, we do a lot of spam blocking, porn spam blocking, and even virus blocking and we are always willing to try to do more. Here's what we need to help us: maybe a subject line with an offensive word or perhaps an address that a number of these 'bad' letters came from. To get this information please send us the headers.

"Also, We have new anti spam technology coming online sometime in Feb or March (Modus Mail) The new upgrade provides SIEVE Filtering which is the state-of-the-art for SPAM/Virus detection. We hope this will make a major impact on what is still floating through our network."
(Ted Best)

No, we will never be able to block all of it, if we try to, some of the 'good' letters are going to get blocked as well. If you get inappropriate mail just don't read it and discard it. If you get a lot of it forward it to abuse@intrstar.net. Never reply to any of it and never try to 'unsubscribe'. the majority of unsubscribe offers only serve to increase the volume of junk mail that you receive.  

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