Penis Enlargement, Cheap Viagra, and Noni Juice: Evaluating and Winning the War Against Health Product Spam

Abstract

Unsolicited commercial e-mail, or “spamâ€, is an exponentially increasing annoyance for millions of Americans every day. Health product spam – spam which promotes drugs, dietary supplements, and medical devices – is both annoying and dangerous, because fraudulent health products are at best a waste of money and at worst hazardous to health. This paper discusses four spam case studies – 21 CENTURY MIRACLE PRESCRIPTIONS, Noni Juice, Pinacle Penis Enlargement Pills, and Sleep Angel – to evaluate the effectiveness of the FDA, the FTC, and state consumer protection laws in stopping fraudulent health product spam. This paper also analyzes the impact of the federal CAN-SPAM Act, federal and state computer crime laws, and technological remedies in actual reduction of spam. Combining the best lessons from health and anti-spam regulatory law, this paper concludes with an array of proposals that would better regulate e-mail advertising of health products.