Dear George: "First, I want to let you know that I enjoy reading Realty Tech Talk. I have learned much from you articles. I want to get your advice on what to do with a particular spammer. He operates a company dealing in environmental services. His messages first started after the Great Flood in Houston. His company has a mold removal service. I would guess that somehow he got his hands on a list of all Realtor's e-mail addresses and solicited our business to remove mold from our client's houses that were damaged in the flood. This is just business. I fully support his right to send us information on his services.

What I do not support are his spams inviting us to his social club every single week. There you can buy $85 cigars. I don't smoke. You can also purchase $800 bottles of wine. I have a beer pocketbook.

I am well versed on reading e-mail headers. I know how to use anti-spam tools. I have asked his ISPs (he has two) to stop him from sending me these spams. They don't even reply. Most ISP's do reply. I have had good success in stopping most spammers. Guess what? One of his ISPs is located in the same office as the spammer! I have never asked him to stop spamming me. I have received advice is to never respond to a spammer as it serves only to verify your e-mail address. Moreover, the spammer will probably sell it to other spammers.

I am fully aware of how to use filters. But, filters do not stop the message from being sent to you. The spammer has already stolen time on the Internet to send you an e-mail you don't want. I don't know what can be done. I would appreciate your advice." -- Spammed

Dear Spammed: Sometimes unsolicited e-mail is informative and useful (as you pointed out, you support the spammer's right to do business by sending us information regarding his services. The problem is, of course, that spammers (including but not limited to, porno and explicit sex sites) totally abuse this right.

My thoughts regarding SPAM are, as Patricia Faley, the spokesperson for the Direct Marketing Association has allegedly said, "We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance to show you what I have to offer you, and if you don't like it, then I won't contact you again." And, in my opinion, that is all a spammer should get: "one bite at the apple."

Every business should be allowed one unsolicited e-mail to another person or business. If the recipient wishes to receive further e-mails, then he or she should be provided an "opt-in" link where the recipient can sign up to receive additional e-mail, as well as to opt-out from the list at any time.

What would happen if a person received more than one unsolicited e-mail from another person without opting-in? It should be something as simple as merely forwarding the offending e-mail to the appropriate federal agency that would autorespond to you with a case number. The agency would also autorespond to the spammer with an appropriate warning that the spammer is subject to federal penalties (see the California statute reference at http://spam.abuse.net/spam.) This would, of course, require federal legislation.

In the meantime, there are numerous anti-spam sites. One of them is CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial eMail) at http://www.cauce.org. This organization asks only for your membership. It does not charge any fees. It will not accept donations. For other sites, my search this morning at Google.com returned 429,000 entries.

In fairness, Peter G. Miller, the publisher of Realty Times and author of Media Marketing, has a different view.

He points out that virtually all advertising and marketing is unsolicited. He suggests that e-mail is nothing more than an advertising medium and that if we restrict the use of one medium than there may be calls to also restrict other forms of marketing such as cold calling. He also quotes former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas who wrote that "the right of freedom of speech and press includes not only the right to utter or to print, but the right to distribute, the right to receive, the right to read, and freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought, and freedom to teach."

It's that "right to distribute" which is infringed, says Peter, by efforts to limit the use of e-mail. In particular, he argues that new businesses, small businesses, and minority businesses are disproportionately impacted by e-mail limitations.

The easy solution, says Peter, is to hit the "delete" button if you see e-mail you don't like.

Dear George: "I'm using a Palm PDA. Is it possible to connect it to a digital camera device so that I can store the images on my Palm? I'd like to upload them later to my Website." -- Palm User

Dear Palm User: Kodak (there may also be others) makes a digital camera that connects to the Palm PDA. I don't have much information yet regarding this portable use of technology. However, I'm told it will work with Palm models 3.X and higher (unconfirmed so check out the specifics).

Dear George: "I am looking for articles dealing with the courtesy expected from agents in communicating with one another. I'd also like to know who picks the Title Company and why." -- Offended

Dear Offended: I am not aware of any specific article sources dealing with professional courtesy between agents in the real estate profession. I'm fairly certain, though, that some useful tips are contained in numerous articles. A good rule-of-thumb to use in any dealings with other real estate professionals, however, is to focus upon representing the best interests of your client. If you allow another agent's rudeness to penetrate your professionalism, then you may be placing your own interests above those of your client's.

The answer to your second question varies not only from state to state, but also from market area to market area. As to this particular issue, real estate professionals seem to be fond of ignoring state law in order to favor the law of, "well, that's just the way it's done around here."

In Texas, for example, it is (and has been for "eons") entirely negotiable (with one notable exception) between the buyer and seller as to which one gets to pick the Title Company. That fact, however, has not yet reached the understanding of some real estate practitioners.

The one notable exception is when a buyer pays for the owner's title policy in a transaction involving a federally related loan (nearly all loans). In that situation it is illegal for a seller to require the buyer to close at a Title Company of the seller's choosing. That particular exception applies to all states.

Dear George: "I have been reading your column for some time. I too am concerned about the security issues involving my laptop. I am a real estate agent who is not a ş technology guru.' I just want to be protected. Between Norton Personal Firewall and Black Ice Defender, which one do you suggest?" -- Concerned

Dear Concerned: Within your selection guidelines, I believe you will be pleased with Norton. You will still need to perform a minimal amount of configuration. However, the configuration wizard is extremely helpful. Run a Norton security check from the Personal Firewall web page. I suggest that you try the trial version. After installing it, run the security check again. I think you will be pleased with the results of the second security check.

For more articles by George Stephens, please press here.

George Stephens welcomes tech questions for possible use in this column. Send your questions to George via e-mail. Because of the volume of mail received, questions cannot be answered individually.

Published: October 19, 2001

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

George C. Stephens, CRB is the Broker of deRaat Stephens, Inc. dba ERA Stephens Properties and the Director of Compliance for eRealty, Inc. Stephens served as 1998 Chairman of the 13,000+ member Houston Association of REALTORS® and is the Vice Chairman of HAR’s wholly owned subsidiary, e-Har, Inc. He is the 2001 Secretary/Treasurer of the 50,000+ member Texas Association of REALTORS® and TAR’s 2002 Chairman-Elect. Stephens holds a Texas Real Estate Broker license as well as a Texas Mortgage Broker License.