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The proliferation of junk e-mail is threatening to overwhelm the Internet. Software companies are rushing to build defenses-but will the new technologies do more harm than good?
Operating 20 computers in an abandoned schoolhouse in Rockford, IL, Jay Nelson worked with relatives to set up more than a dozen shell companies, renting equipment and Web hosting services using aliases such as "Art Fudge." Nelson and his associates then "hacked into AOL e-mail accounts," states one legal motion filed by AOL, and overwhelmed members with links to pornographic Web sites such as pamsplayhouse.com.
In 1999, AOL won a court injunction barring Nelson from such activities and fining him $1.9 million; nonetheless, he and his colleagues subsequently sent another billion e-mail messages-triggering 25 percent of AOL's spam-related customer complaints over the next two years.
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