You've Got Spam!

It is the curse of the modern e-mailer: one e-mail from a friend, a colleague, or sister Sue. Three from the strange addresses flogging weight loss, sex tricks and easy money. E-mail was supposed to make life more efficient, more pleasant, gratifying even. Spam makes it a mess. And the volume of spam is climbing like a tidal wave. All over the country, cottage industry spam masters and mistresses are churning out billions of unwlecome internet come-ons with a database and a click of a mouse. If they get a hundred responses on a milion spam messages, they're satisfied. And in all liklihood, you're not. It's a battle royal out there, between legislators, software privacy mavens and spam. Spam is winning.

Guests:

Ray Everett-Church, co-founder, Coalition Against Commercial Email and co-author, "Internet Privacy for Dummies"

Laura Betterly, direct mail marketer and president of Data Resource Consulting

Karl Jacob, CEO, Cloudmark, manufacturer of anti-spam software

Amity Shlaes, On Point news analyst and columnist with the Financial Times