[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 18759-18760]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  SPAM

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I would like to move to another subject, 
one that is brought to my attention on a daily basis. In fact, every 
time I turn on my computer, it is there, staring me in the face. It is 
this whole issue of spam.
  One of my sons had not answered his e-mails; he had been away, in 
Bartlett, back in Tennessee. He came and turned his computer on and 
there were 300 e-mails waiting for him. He said only 40 of the 300 e-
mails--this was just last night--40 of the 300 e-mails were e-mails 
actually sent to him by somebody he knew in the sort of discussion that 
we know e-mail is all about; that is, to stay in touch with family and 
friends and communicate effectively. The other approximately 250 or 260 
e-mails were unsolicited e-mails that had been sent to him.
  It reminded me of a letter I received from a constituent, a 73-year-
old

[[Page 18760]]

grandmother from Vonore, TN. That letter reads as follows:

       Dear Senator Frist: My niece gave me a computer in 2001. It 
     has been a delight to e-mail. At age 73, there is a tendency 
     to feel the world has moved ahead of you, and no one wants to 
     be left behind. Now I wonder if left behind would not be 
     better.
       I started getting e-mail titles that horrified me. I have 
     been unable to find out where it comes from or how to stop 
     it. I communicated with my niece, who is Executive Assistant 
     to the only female Judge in Alabama, and she tells me they 
     also have had the experience. She sent me an article from the 
     Mobile paper that would indicate many people are becoming 
     outraged at the practice. I urge you to be one of them.

  Mary's letter continues. There are two more paragraphs. Third 
paragraph:

       I do understand the need for free speech, but this goes way 
     beyond the bounds of decency. I am appalled to think our 
     young people are subjected to such an onslaught of trash. 
     There is no way they can be protected at this point if a 
     grandmother, whose e-mail address clearly identifies her as 
     such, is not.
       If a child buys alcohol, tobacco, Playboy or Hustler at the 
     local market, it is a crime. Yet in their own home they are 
     not being protected. Could you craft a law that would 
     prosecute anyone who sent unsolicited indecent or vulgar mail 
     into our homes?--Sincerely, Mary K. Barnwell.

  This letter is just one of many that I could have read which 
constituents have sent me. I mentioned my own son's experience, 
experience we all have had, the inconvenience, and the offensive nature 
with which these e-mails are sent and received.
  The answer to Mary's question clearly is, yes; we can craft a law 
that will punish individuals who flood our homes with indecent, 
unsolicited, and endless streams of spam. International Magazine 
reports in its most current issue that the millions of spam e-mails 
that are clogging up our computers are sent out by only a handful of 
individuals. These spammers call e-mail addresses from chat rooms, from 
Web pages, from news groups, from message boards, and from e-mail 
service directories to set up their spamming operations. They even sent 
out e-mails to random number and letter combinations to look for hits. 
When they get a hit, it is a matter of minutes before the spam starts 
pouring in.
  Spammers, as we all know, often deliberately target children. They 
capture e-mail addresses from sites that are typically used by kids, 
and then they inundate these young victims with offers of free toys, of 
video games, and contests. But when the child clicks to enter, they are 
again rerouted to a 900-number modem connection. A dialer is 
automatically loaded onto the child's system, and unbeknownst to the 
child they are racking up $3.99 per minute until they sign off. You can 
imagine the parents' shock and anger when that phone bill arrives.
  In other instances, the child might click on the free toy offer. They 
might get rerouted through a pornography site. When they try to exit, 
pornography screens pop up to block their retreat.
  Some spammers send e-mail in the old-fashioned way. The perpetrator 
sends an enticing e-mail--an offer, for example, for action figures. 
The hook? The child has to enter a credit card to get the toy. Mom and 
dad's credit card information goes in and thousands of credit card 
dollars go out.
  As we all know, as parents it is hard to keep close tabs on a child's 
Internet activity. Many kids have multiple e-mail addresses among 
various free Web sites. Multiple e-mail addresses means multiple routes 
for spam, not to mention the unsavory and dangerous Internet 
communication.
  That is why in this body we need to address the problem and start 
helping parents filter out this irritating and indeed potentially 
financially ruinous junk. Indeed, in the Senate, we will take action to 
protect the millions of Americans who have used the Internet the 
positive way for which it was intended--to talk, to communicate, to 
stay in touch with loved ones, to shop and to talk to families and 
friends with good intent. We simply should not be hassled by fraudulent 
sales pitches. We simply should not have to put up with being pelted 
with pornographic material when we simply sign on to read e-mail. 
Aggressive spamming is a menace. It is threatening an otherwise 
miraculous and indeed revolutionary form of communication. We simply 
cannot and should not let a few nefarious individuals spoil it for us 
all.
   I bring this issue up in part because my son mentioned last night 
what happened to him when he turned on his computer and there was the 
spam laid out in over 250 e-mails sent to him over a period of several 
weeks, and in part because we all see it each and every time we turn on 
our computer.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to address this problem, 
and indeed to help America's families and Internet users put a stop to 
this spam.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Burns). The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry: Are we currently 
in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I want to first say to the distinguished 
majority leader that I was privileged to be here for part of the 
comments on the floor. As usual, today he brings to the floor of the 
Senate a tremendously difficult issue confronting the American people. 
What he spoke of in terms of spam and our kids is a tough one. We have 
to solve it. I believe his response to his own question about whether 
it can be solved is that it can be solved. It is going to be tough. I 
hope we can get some good Senators to put their shoulders to it and see 
what we can do about getting it stopped.
  (The remarks of Mr. Domenici pertaining to the introduction of S. 
1432 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced 
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

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