Susan Getgood, SurfControl's vice president of marketing, said the total volume of spam the company is tracking has not changed since the beginning of January. Francois Lavaste, vice president of marketing at e-mail-filtering company Brightmail, said his company's statistics showed similar results and, if anything, a slight increase in spam volume since the beginning of the year. . . .
No sooner did the U.S. Can-Spam antispam law go into effect than spammers got to work exploiting its loopholes and gray areas, an e-mail-filtering company said Tuesday.

Representatives of United Kingdom-based SurfControl said that while 19 out of 20 spammers are ignoring the law completely, SurfControl researchers have observed some spammers adjusting their tactics to give at least the impression of compliance.

The spammers' methods, however, often violate either the letter or the spirit of the law.

The Can-Spam Act (full name: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act), which took effect Jan. 1, requires commercial e-mail to include the advertiser's postal address, a "clear and conspicuous" commercial notice and a way for recipients to opt out of future mailings.

"Unfortunately, many spammers aren't really doing anything different than they did before the Can-Spam Act was passed -- they're just creating the illusion they are complying with the law and using it to market or commit fraud," said Susan Larson, SurfControl's vice president of global content.

The link for this article located at Wired.com is no longer available.