Cheap enough for spam?

Stratham, N.H. - Would you cheerfully open your e-mail in-box to all the spam you can stand in exchange for a cut-rate ISP account?

Walt Rines, long reviled as one of the 'Net's most prolific spammers (now reformed, he insists) is betting a new business that many e-mail users will leap at such an offer.

Rines says his new company, Global Technology Marketing International (GTMI) has already signed up a dozen small ISPs to funnel commercial e-mail to willing recipients. The ISPs will get a free T-1 connection from GTMI, and the advertisers, presuming they materialize, will pay GTMI a fee for the privilege of reaching a receptive audience.

GTMI will not be peddling spam, technically speaking. Spam is unsolicited commercial e-mail and subscribers to GTMI-connected ISPs will be giving their explicit permission to have these e-mail ads pumped into their in-boxes, according to Rines.

His commercial e-mail network is slated to begin operation by the end of next month. GTMI itself will offer 56 K-byte dialup Internet access in 13 markets for either $11.95 per month, with advertising e-mail, or $19.95 a month ad-free. Rines said he doen't know how many advertising messages will land in a typical customer's in-box, but he expects tolerance levels to vary widely.

Will the business plan work? Doubters abound, but there are e-mail experts and anti-spam activists who find the untried concept intriguing.

"The model that a spammer pays an ISP for mail to go in is absolutely the right model," said Paul Hoffman, director of the Internet Mail Consortium. "But that's only in the absence of other spam, because if other spam is still (able to get) through, why would a spammer ever want to do this?"

The answer, according to Rines, is so they can avoid the wrath of anti-spam activists and the sting of increasingly frequent legal challenges being aimed at junk e-mailers. Just last week, for example, Hotmail, Inc., was awarded judgments ranging from $7,500 to $275,000 against a trio of spammers who had forged the company's domain name.

The notion of spammers being scared straight doesn't wash with everyone.

"They'll attract the former or would-be spammers who want the real appearance of legitimacy," said Alan Krueger, a software engineer and anti-spam activist. "(However,) the vast majority of spammers couldn't care less about legitimacy, and won't take the perceived cut in revenues by going with an agency like GTMI that doesn't blast the 'Net at large."

Other GTMI skeptics question whether the scheme has sufficient revenue potential.

"I don't believe that GTMI will be able to pay enough to the ISPs to allow them to cut their rates," said Charles Hughes, an anti-spam activist and systems administrator for the Connecticut Department of Higher Education. "Obviously, if they don't offer lower rates than other local ISPs then nobody would bother to use them."

There are other pitfalls, too. Rines acknowledged that simple filtering techniques could allow a subscriber to reap the benefits of GTMI-produced price breaks without having to read any of the e-mail pitches. Advertisers, too, are aware of that possibility, he added, but seem willing to accept the risk.

On the optimistic side, one ISP executive who has already signed on with Rines said she expects the commercial e-mail network to be well received.

"I've talked to a number of my customers and they like the idea," said Patty Lindsey, president of AltiNet, Inc., a Dallas-based ISP. Consumers will welcome special offers and price discounts on legitimate goods and services, she said.

Hoffman seconded that notion. "Remember, some people like junk mail," he said. "If Rines gets legitimate companies to send the (e-mail ads), I know people will like it."

One of the obstacles GTMI will face is the ill will Rines has generated in recent years as a practitioner and vocal proponent of spam. Although he says he has seen the error of those ways, not everyone is convinced.

"I wouldn't trust Rines if he put up a million-dollar bond," said Hughes. "Struggling ISPs probably won't be quite so picky though."

Contact Senior Editor Paul McNamara

Four days in spam hell
Canadian ISP executive recounts frustrating and costly experience of being victimized by mysterious spammer. Network World, 3/30/98.

Shades of spam
We posted five scenarios, then asked NWFusion users whether they were spam or not. See how others voted and commented.

Once just annoying, now spam is a real threat
Daniel Blum's view. Network World, 2/16/98.

Unsolicited Bulk Email: Mechanisms for Control
Detailed paper by the Internet Mail Consortium on the issue.