How to Can the Spam

NEWSWEEK ^ | Feb. 20, 2003 | Steven Levy

[new cruelty]

How to Can the Spam

		I’m sick of it. You’re sick of it. And it won’t be easy to stop. But the first step in controlling unwanted e-mail is to pass a law

By Steven Levy
NEWSWEEK

Feb. 24 issue —  Looking at my bloated in box, it’s amazing to realize that less than a measly decade ago, you could have had a reasonable debate about whether the Internet should accommodate any commercialism. Now the argument is whether a vile form of capitalism will kill the Net’s best feature: e-mail. Each hour brings a torrent of unwelcome and often appalling “spam”—a term insufficiently odious to describe what’s happened to the poor Internet (at least you can spit out the real thing if someone sneaks it in your omelet). I am certain you are as fed up as I am with the promises to make body parts and bank accounts bigger, the offers to buy Viagra or inkjet cartridges and the opportunities to recover a hidden fortune of the widow of some fallen despot. And almost certainly, when starkly explicit images pop up on your screen, you have wondered just how this can be happening—and perhaps you’ve looked over your shoulder in case John Ashcroft is ready to cuff you for harboring sinful jpegs.

[Maceman]

I just recently installed Norton Internet Security and configured my Outlook to automatically junk anything that NIS labels a "Apam ALert."

So far, NIS has not incorrectly labeled a single personal e-mail as spam, although it has let a few juml e-mails through.

But the Spam content in my inbox has been reduced by at least 90%.

Why do we always hafta have a law?

[Maceman]

Apam Alert = Spam Alert

[new cruelty]

good question.

[martin_fierro]

Me likee Mailwasher.

[HairOfTheDog]

I use my cable provider's email address, and get virtually no spam.

I am careful about what I sign up for, but I have made plenty of purchases and registered at plenty of websites, including cheesy game sites that I would think would be the first to sell my address. I still get virtually no spam, only a few newsletters I did sign up for.

Is this a problem only with free email addresses? I have been told no, but I just really suspect that Spam, especially explicit spam, comes from visiting those places!

[new cruelty]

I have been told no, but I just really suspect that Spam, especially explicit spam, comes from visiting those places!

lol, my mother-in-law has some 'splaning to do.

[Dallas]

me too.....it works great

[Lunatic Fringe]

Mailwasher is excellent- it bounces the spam back to make it look like your address no longer exists. It might take a few weeks of bouncing before your address is removed, but it works!

[Lunatic Fringe]

Spam these days come from flooding known mail servers with common user names... they play the numbers game hoping some of it will get through. Mail that is not bounced is noted as being good, and that is how they build their databases. Those databases are sold to other mailers and before you know it you are flooded with spam.

[Sgt_Schultze]

MAILWASHER is a great freebie and it allows you to bounce mail so the sender receives a DEAMON response indicating your actual email address is bogus.

[Junior]

Why do we always hafta have a law?

I pay for my mailbox space. Spammers are technically stealing from me by eating up my space without my permission. Maybe we could just charge them with unlawful taking?

[Dahoser]

Let's not forget that lazy forwarders who do not remove addresses when they forward the latest joke or hoax, especially our pals who remain on IdiotOL, are providing low hanging fruit to the spammers.

[k2blader]

Reference bump.

[Dont Mention the War]

Why do we always hafta have a law?

The problem's not the content, it's the fact that we're PAYING for it, and that it's getting to the point where it's about to overwhelm the net into gridlock. A spam filter on your computer keeps you from seeing any of it, but it's still clogging up the lines to get to your computer, taking up space on your drive, possibly forcing you to go over quota on your ISP account and incur extra charges, etc. And when ISPs have to double their capacity just to handle all the incoming spam, those costs get passed on to the customers. It's basically the same reason Congress passed the junk fax law: It's your paper and ink they're using to spam you, and that's nothing more than simple theft.

But like I said above, none of this is going to matter when your mail stops going through at all. In the last year, I have seen a rapid and steady increase in the amount of time it takes for regular emails to reach their destinations. Email from friends that used to arrive with five seconds now take anywhere from five minutes to two hours. "Breaking News" email alerts from the various news channels sometimes arrive a DAY AND A HALF after they were sent, and almost never earlier than a half-hour after being sent (which hardly makes them "breaking" any more). This is almost entirely due to spam.

Some sort of legal and/or technical crackdown is going to be required around the end of 2003, because it truly is getting towards the tipping point.

[Billy_bob_bob]

The answer is NOT to pass a new law, the answer is to provide a different kind of e-mail service. Simply put, most e-mail accounts are inclusive of the world at large, i.e. anyone can send you mail and you will get it in your in-box. The solution is to provide the option of making your e-mail service EXCLUSIVE of the world at large, i.e. you only get mail from those who you have explicitly included in your "approved to receive mail from" list. When you need to get e-mail from the world at large (for whatever reason) you switch the option on your account from "exclusive" to "inclusive". When you tire of spam you switch from "inclusive" to "exclusive". Simple. Easy. No laws required.

[Gopher Broke]

How about this for a law: We will not eliminate spam...but we will charge for it....set up a computer system to allow spammers to send as much as they like for 10 cents per message, still FAR CHEAPER than snail mail.

The spammers must post funds, in advance, to a database and each email they send must have a click link to "claim" and deposit the 10cents to the addressee, if they do not want the Spam message.

Once your account reaches $x, you can get the money transferred to your checking account, or a charity of your choice.

This might only work in the US...

Any thoughts?

[pointsal]

It certainly is theft. Good comment.

[Question_Assumptions]

If you ever put your email address out on the internet or on a web site, it can wind up on a spammer's list. I can often detect spam simply because I get two copies (sent to two different email addresses that forward to my current one) or because they are sent to old addresses or machines that forward into my current email. If you don't advertise your email, you can avoid a lot of spam.

[steplock]

To those "friends" that are always sending you those "fwd/fwd/fwd/fwd" ad Nauseum letters with the cheesy jokes, Bill Gates will pay you million$, etc..

Send them this link: Stop SPAM & Junk Mail

or they can goto: Security Downloads and click on -Stop SPAM & Junk Mail-

NO VIRUS