A new organization has formed to involve consumers in fixing email. The group's founder explains its goals and activities.

Stephanie Jordan, editor of Messaging News, launched FixingEmail.org in September. The group is dedicated to the mission of safeguarding consumers from spam and email fraud. According to an IBM online security study, 237 million separate security attacks were launched around the world during the first six months of 2005, resulting in more than 54,000 attacks occurring every hour. This has become an online epidemic that threatens the email medium. But with funding support from technology industry companies, FixingEmail.org offers a place for consumers to take action and become more involved in the fight against email abuse by facilitating the reporting of email spam and fraud.

In addition to offering a place to report email abuse, the community also offers blogs, security updates, white papers and resources to helpful sites including direct links to technology vendor pages. Guest contributors, such as the Federal Trade Commission, law enforcement officials, online retailers, and major banks offer commentary, all with the goal of educating consumers. We talked with Jordan to learn more.

iMedia: How did your organization come about?

Stephanie Jordan: There are government agencies and technology companies fighting the war on spam and email fraud, but the consumer's voice was missing. FixingEmail.org's mission is to offer a single resource for consumers to report spam and email fraud, gain insight on what to beware of, and to educate one another.

iMedia: What are consumers encouraged to do?

Jordan: We would like consumers to report what is coming into their email inboxes by either forwarding it to the appropriate organization (such as eBay or Wells Fargo) or if they are unsure, they can forward emails to us at spam@fixingemail.org or fraud@fixingemail.org.

In addition, they can join the cause and community by educating other email users, alerting FixingEmail.org to new trends and recent malicious email activity. We think of FixingEmail.org as being similar to Neighborhood Watch -- if we all keep alert, and alert one another, then everyone stays safer.

iMedia: Are you helping consumers understand the difference between spam and legitimate emails from marketers that they've opted in for, or is ALL commercial email thought of as spam?

Jordan: We are really targeting the underhanded tactics such as spoofing, phishing and fraud. Making people aware that just because the email says it is from a financial institution and it links to a website that looks like a financial institution, it very well may not be from a financial institution.

Deliverability of legitimate email has been put at risk by cyber-criminals, who are trying to sell to unsuspecting consumers such things as pharmaceuticals, or financing or other offers. The issue with the opt-in or opt-out is that in many cases if a consumer clicks on the opt-out, do-not-mail list, they may only be confirming that theirs is an active email address, which, almost assures them that more mail will be coming to their inbox!

iMedia: What do you think legitimate email marketers following the rules should do to help consumers better understand the difference between their marketing and spam?

Jordan: It is often hard to distinguish between spam and legitimate email marketing. The most important step legitimate email marketers can take at this stage of the game is to become early adopters of authentication standards. Sender ID Framework (SIDF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) hold the promise that we can start to know who really is behind the emails coming into our email inboxes. A legitimate email marketer, who truly follows the rules, uses a clear subject line, a valid return email address, collects their outbound email addresses legitimately AND can be authenticated to be who they say they are, will increase their deliverability and their acceptance into the email inboxes of consumers.

iMedia: You mention the technology vendors that are doing a great job of helping consumers filter spam. From studies you've seen and stories you've heard from consumers, are they filtering TOO much (i.e. emails consumers have opted in for) or are they getting pretty close to perfecting the science?

Jordan: Technology vendors, such as FixingEmail.org sponsor IronPort Systems, are doing a great job of addressing viruses, sequestering suspicious emails and monitoring network traffic. To aid in the fight on spam, IronPort developed SenderBase, which is a free and open email traffic monitoring service, which assigns scores to email senders from 10 (very untrustworthy) to +10 (very trustworthy). SpamAssassin and others use it to great affect.

High-volume legitimate emailers can get their messages trapped in a filter, this is true and it does happen, but there are usually paths that legitimate emailers can take to get their messages unblocked and released to their intended destinations, albeit delayed. Being aware of the words that set off spam filters is important for legitimate email marketers. We do tell consumers to watch out for symbols or odd spellings as a tip-off that the email is attempting to foil a filter.

Email abuse has really hurt the potential and promise of email marketing. With billions of spam messages being sent daily, catching it all without any false-positives is difficult, although some of the recent generation of properly set filters can get pretty close.

iMedia: You keep abreast of legislation in this area. Are the right steps being taken? What more needs to be done?

Jordan: Government at both the federal and state level have (and continue) to create some stringent regulations around the sending of bulk emails within the United States. Recent spam stats from Sophos reveal the United States is still the tops at sending spam attributing 26.35 percent of all spam to originate here, although in 2004 the United States was responsible for 41.50 percent, so it has come down.

But the volume from overseas is dramatically increasing, especially in Asia with a combined total of 39.67 percent in 2005, up from 24.05 percent last year. Since we know the majority of these cyber crimes are originating overseas, the U.S. laws are mostly ineffective.

This is why FixingEmail.org believes that no one entity can fix the email abuse single handedly. It needs to be a holistic approach that includes regulations, that includes technology, and that includes consumers taking an active role, providing data to those abuse desks and enforcers. Until that time, unwanted and malicious email will continue to arrive into our mailboxes.

iMedia: And in the end, if consumers help clean up spam, legitimate marketers win. Do you agree?

Jordan: Everybody wins if we can address email abuse.

Dawn Anfuso is editor of iMedia Connection.