[cumbria_lug] Proposal for dealing with spam

[Michael Saunders]

On a typical day I receive 100+ spam messages, and the problem is only
getting worse. So, the other day I was thinking of ways to combat
spam, and came up with this idea -- I've just posted it on the LXF
forum, but it'd be good to get some other feedback too. If anyone has
any thoughts, please do let me know!

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[ Snip other stuff ]

Anyhoo, I've thought of a way to severely cut down the amount of spam
traffic on the Net. Many of the proposed solutions involve changes to
mail protocols, or pay-per-email systems, and that just ain't gonna
work unless we can convince every email user on the planet to
switch/upgrade/fix their systems all at once.

Spammers aren't the problem. Yep, I wouldn't mind if they were all
thrown onto Bouvet Island until they had to eat one another, but the
problem is that some people respond. Sending spam may be ultra-cheap,
but it's not free, and if nobody replied to spam (and bought the
products) it wouldn't be worth the spammer's effort.

So: fine people for buying products from spammers. IOW, make it
illegal to purchase products via unsolicited commercial email. Spread
the word, make the law clear in newspapers and ISP home pages, and
watch -- hardly anyone would respond to spam, making it less cost
effective for spammers to operate, thus drastically reducing the
amount of spam traffic.

Now, the problem is: how do you know when someone buys from a spammer?
The trick here would be for law enforcement agencies to send out fake
spam, and fine those attempting to buy. The fines would only be very
small -- say, 50 quid or so -- but enough to act as a deterrent.

I'm interested to hear what folks on this board think about this plan
-- maybe there's a major flaw I haven't spotted. But even so, compared
to all of the other 'solutions' being discussed and proposed, this is
incredibly simple and would be highly effective. It may not completely
eradicate spam, but it'd cut it down by huge amounts.

M

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-- 
Michael Saunders
www.aster.fsnet.co.uk