How to get rid of spam?

[Exhaust Port]

Recently we've seen a push by the government and even private industry to find a way to stop spam. Here's my idea:

All spam I get is advertisement for a product or service. Instead of wasting time trying a way to stop the spam from reaching the masses why don't they just severly penalize the company or product that's being advertised? It seems to me that they are going about it all wrong trying to find ways of filtering out the unwanted email. I think the better solution is to go after the companies that utilize it. Right there on the email is the contact information. If Joe Blow is trying to sell everyone a new mortgage rate then go after him. If he's sick of being fined a large amount for every infraction then he'll stop using spam email as a method of email.

Mr. Spam Sender will be out of business if companies don't want to be fined for using that type of service.

[stillakid]

What I don't get is the spam telling me how to get rid of spam.


I think that the best "non-government" solution is to develop a program in which you could input a spammer's email address and have it automatically deluged with spam from other spammers. The program would essentially compile a list of spam addresses (updatable from the web) and very soon, every spammer alive would clog up with mail from like minded fools.

[derek]

i think just like with bashing telemarketers, this idea of banning unwanted e-mail is not needed. i get telemarketers calling my house, and i don't just answer the phone, or i hang up on them.......no big deal, that's why i have caller ID and an answering machine..............and i have a "delete" button on my inbox..............i really don't see what the big deal is............besides, what could be considered spam for one person is a potential valued product to another..................only in america do we have enough leisure time to complain about little things like telemarketers and un-wanted e-mail!!!

[Pendo]

Spamers should be scared to send spams in the first place. At the moment nothing is really done about spam, but spam emails should be traced to the source and the spammer should face a penalty! With fear of being arested alot of spammers would then probably stop!

PENDO!

[stillakid]

and i have a "delete" button on my inbox..............i really don't see what the big deal is............

For me...

Why should I be forced to scour through my email every morning looking for those that I truly am interested in reading? Spammers seem to think that if I am continually pounded with offers to enlarge my penile member, then I will just give in and do it. Bottom line is that if I need to purchase something, I'm quite likely to go looking for it myself when I want to. All other attempts to get my attention (like PopUps for instance) are a tremendous waste of their time and mine. I shouldn't be forced to use my delete button when I never asked them to send me anything in the first place. When I'm ready to get a bigger package down there, I'll give 'em a call. Until then, they can leave me alone.

[Exhaust Port]

i really don't see what the big deal is

This is more of an issue of receiving unwanted email. Spam is also dragging down the ISP's of the world and that cost is pasted onto us. Current estimation is that spam cost US corporations almost $10 Billion a year. Now not only are we taking a hit in our ISP costs but those companies who are affected by the onslaught of spam pass their cost on to us as well. Here's an article I found, albeit not the best one out there it does give a brief explaination of the issues.


Spam Article

Imagine how much you would hate telemarketers if you were charged 25 cents everytime they called. Even though you could hang up and deny the offer you still got hit with a financial penalty AT YOUR COST. Not fun. With the explosive growth of spam, in addition to the current cost, we going to see some significant cost increases if it's not stopped.

[derek]

...........but this is an internet provider problem, not something to be handled by the government......... i have no problem with AOL or whomever putting a stop to this.

[Exhaust Port]

The government has a hugh investment in the Internet (remember they funded it's initial research as well as it infrastructure?) as well as utilizing it to run nearly all the different facets of their operation. They too are subjected to the cost that spam generates. How do you think the government will be offsetting those costs? Higher taxes or pulling from other departments or projects. I'd rather my local government spend the extra $xxxx a year on the school and not trying to upgrade their system to handle the spam issue. Perhaps you have different priorities in your town.

[stillakid]

...........but this is an internet provider problem, not something to be handled by the government......... i have no problem with AOL or whomever putting a stop to this.

Ah, but here is the rub. If I'm not mistaken, the FCC requires that all television commercials identify the company or product they are selling in some manner. This was of course done when the public airwaves were the primary source of television advertising. The point being, so that consumers could easily discern what was legitimate programming and who was selling snake oil.

Anyhow, the FCC has a responsibility to play catch up with the Internet. While indeed most of us pay for access, just as we pay for a hard line access to broadcast media, the Internet is "public property." No one person owns it. It belongs to everyone, and just like the public airwaves (the EM spectrum), there needs to be an official recognition that users are utilizing it for the "public good." Of course, there's a bit of a gray area there as people have differing opinions about what constitutes "good," however receiving a gigabyte of unwanted advertising in your personal (paid for) mailbox can't possibly fall into that category.

Put simply, I bought the right to my own email address and should have the power to decide who gets to put mail in it and who doesn't. I don't care if someone puts up a "penis enlargement" or "breast enhancement" or "save 80% on your insurance" or "XXX" website. I can type that in to my address bar or not. Just like changing channels on the TV. But I should not have to be subjected to that kind of unsolicited nonsense. The government has a responsibility to be involved.

[JediTricks]

i think just like with bashing telemarketers, this idea of banning unwanted e-mail is not needed. i get telemarketers calling my house, and i don't just answer the phone, or i hang up on them.......no big deal, that's why i have caller ID and an answering machine..............and i have a "delete" button on my inbox..............i really don't see what the big deal is............

Tell that to my email box, if I don't check it every day, it fills up completely with spam which risks my dialup account shutting me down. It's like if telemarketers called your house every 30 seconds and you HAD to listen to the first 5 seconds of their spiel to get rid of it because they sometime pretend to be people you know or phone calls you're actually waiting for.

Spam is beyond abusive now, they are using a mail system which has been free to everybody to advertise at all of us, thus stealing our time and costing networks money to transmit and deal with this stuff. And they are difficult to track down because they can spoof IP addresses and put fake remove links & other nastiness which can end up putting the recipient's address on a verified-address list which the spammer can then sell to other spammers.

IMO, email lists should be illegal to sell and the consequences for attempting to do so should be stronger and more enforced than current restrictions. Email addy robots and spiders should be outlawed as well, as should blind email opt-out subscriptions (I think that actually is illegal, but it's a gray area; in any event, you should have to double-opt-in on any mailing list instead of sending blind emails to someone and telling them they can opt-out). ISPs should work harder to cut off spammers' access to the internet, email servers should only allow a small number of batch addresses per email, and IP addresses should be harder to spoof thus making it easier to track the offender down.