Spam: US vs. UK

When email first came out, I tried to publicize my address as widely as possible, hoping to hear from people. Today, I seldom give my email out as even friends have accidentally given it to spammers (by sending me a free e-card).

In the UAE, during the three annual shopping extravaganzas that Dubai used to offer (now reduced to two, as reported in Secret Dubai Diary) most malls and some souks gave tickets to win cars or gold to all the shoppers who’d bought something. The tickets asked for the shoppers’ email to inform them if they’d won. Since filling out those tickets, I haven’t won anything; however, I do get almost 100 spam messages a day.

In the UK, a group called Spamhaus publishes a list of known spammers. The various spam blockers, including Microsoft and (presumbably) Etisalat use this list, and spammers find they lose millions of dollars a day from their blocked spam, so they have sued Spamhaus in the US courts, and have almost always won both actual and punitive damages.

Spamhaus has neither people nor assets in the US, so, sadly, the spammers have been unable to collect their lost earning. Nor have they been able to shut Spamhaus down.

And no spammer has tried suing in the UK, since they fear ending up like Mr. Wilde did when he sued for slander.