Bush v Kerry sparks spam deluge

The US presidential campaign has less than 50 days to go and while we may already be growing tired of the constant media coverage and war record debate, it is in their inboxes that many computer users are seeing one of the greatest downsides of the contest.

The amount of election-related spam is now starting to rise, leading US mail filtering firm FrontBridge Technologies to talk in terms of "a flood of politically motivated email".

In part bulk mailers realise the closely fought contest is on a lot of people's minds and mention of it is likely to tempt users to click on their emails. This is the kind of social engineering tactic employed for some time by spammers, who have taken the lead from virus writers.

Natasha Staley, information security analyst at MessageLabs, said: "Spammers tend to tap into the things they think people are interested in. As such it's to be expected that they will take advantage of topical issues like elections."

The volume of election spam appears to be made up of two distinct types of unsolicited email - those which use such social engineering, just to get messages opened, and those which do carry specific political messages.

"No doubt some bright sparks working for campaigning groups thought that spreading the message via email would be a great idea, perhaps even without considering that their messages could be classified as spam," said Staley.

The election is likely to result in growing amounts of spam over the coming weeks, not least because the pro- and anti-Bush lobbies are so polarised around issues such as healthcare reform and the post-war situations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

MessageLabs' Staley added: "As a general rule, anything that is known to stir emotion amongst the public will be considered decent spam fodder."

It also raises the question of what constitutes spam. Many campaigners who believe they are spreading a message, albeit through ill-advised means, may be shocked to hear themselves lumped together with bulk mailers spamming out adverts for generic 'Viagra' and consolidated loans.

With many bulk mailers sending email from within the US, they may also cite the First Amendment - the right to freedom of speech - especially where political subject matter is concerned.

One such controversial organisation which claims to be legitimately sending out election material is Truthout.org.

In the past the company has fallen foul of SpamCop and Yahoo!'s blacklists but the site's owners have publicly defended a strategy that has even seen users outside the US receive political emails they claim not to have signed up for, leading many to label the organisation a spammer.

In the past Truthout.org has put its blacklisting down to "an individual with a political axe to grind" and the flaws inherent in recipient-based spam rating. It has also threatened legal action against SpamCop.

A number of online message boards contain complaints about the activities of Truthout.org. One recipient posting on Politechbot.org wrote: "Despite never signing up for Truthout's newsletter I get it regularly. I don't know how it happened and I'm certain no one I know would've had any reason to sign me up."

Another poster on Insecure.org wrote: "I too was subscribed to Truthout without any notification and without my consent. I got myself unsubbed and have recently been re-subscribed also without consent."

In an open letter addressing such complaints, dated July 2003, William M Simpich, legal counsel for Truthout.org said: "Truthout has never engaged in indiscriminate mass spamming... First Amendment advocates in the non-commercial sector such as Truthout should not have their speech deterred in any way."

Truthout.org is registered to Marc Ash who is listed as the director of the organisation. All attempts to contact Ash and other staff at Truthout.org failed. At the time of writing Ash had failed to respond to multiple calls for comment on his organisation's tactics.