[Mimedefang] Off topic: Ethics of deleteing spam

[cc]

Alan Madill wrote:

> We are losing customers to our competitors because of spam.  The 
> customer claims that they know someone who uses ISP xyz and 
> they get very little spam.  They have to be filtering it.
> 
> We currently change the subject to [SPAM?]... or [SPAM!]... 
> depending on the score from SpamAssassin and have told our 
> lusers how to filter it or delete it with their email client but it still uses 
> bandwidth and it is a hassle for them to set that up.

Here's what my ISP does.  Basically setup some sort of Spam box on
their server and everymonth, send a detailed list/report of spam
that's accumulating in their spam area.   And make sure they realize
that the spam will be there until they delete it or until a certain
specified period.

The thing about this approach is that it is a hassle to log in
(esp. if the customer is on dialup) to check spam.

> 
> We would like to just delete it or bounce it but we are worried about 
> the ethical and legal issues of doing so.

I'm not entirely comfortable with ISPs deleting spam just outright
without notification; because, what may look like spam to one
person, is someone's invitation that the person requested.

In any event, that's just my $0.02 (from the perspective of
a customer, of course. :))