How can we combat spam? 1

[manarth]

Given the number of threads this crops up in, I thought it deserved its own

I think it safe to say that despite some disagreement on the precise definition of spam, one common feature is that it's "unsolicited".

What is spam?
1. Unsolicited email
2. Unsolicited advertising
3. Unsolicited advertising that attempts to circumvent your blocks
(e.g. by frequently changing the sender's email addresses)
4. Something else?


What can be done to reduce spam?

There are ways a user can reduce the impact of spam - one of which is keeping your email address secret and refusing to publish it anywhere on the web or give it to anyone except your grandma (and even then your taking a risk )

The CDT gives suggestions on action a user can take to reduce the risk of ending up on a mailing list:

http://www.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.shtml

However, I feel the onus should not be on me to take such action to prevent my email address being released. If I choose to publish my email address on a webpage, I am not giving an open invitation to any junk mailers.

Should the spammer's ISP be held accountable?
Should your ISP do more to prevent the spam reaching your mailbox?
Should there be spam legislation?

I think that legislating against ALL junk mail / mass mailings may be a bit draconian...I don't mind some of the unsolicited mail I recieve, especially if it's from a company I've dealt with before.

One potential solution would be to legislate spam - all emails to be given a spam rating of 1-10: 1 being "entirely unsolicited, no previous contact with recipient" and 10 being "personal email" with strict guidelines & penalties for misadvertising the spam rating.

Three things which should be absolutely enforced with all spam:
1. the option to opt-out of the mailing list
2. the sender should not continously change email addresses (i.e. to prevent blocking)
3. the (real world) identification of the sender

And possibly...
4. spammers forced to licence / register with an email marketing authority

Comments? <marc>[ul]help us help![li]please provide feedback on what works / doesn't[/li][li]not sure where to start? click here: faq581-3339[/li][/sup][/ul][/sup]

 

[manarth]

I stand by my original assertion - I think ISPs and email clients should implement a one click &quot;this is spam&quot; reporting system and conglomerate the data into a spam prevention database system.

At the end of the day, the prevention of spam would undeniably save ISPs money. Much as I hate to say it, perhaps it would be beneficial if M$ started implementing such a system... maybe there are benefits to market monopoly after all!
(yeah, oligopoly... whatever... save that argument for another thread!)


<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[AnakinPt]

About spam i have one thing to say. It's very hard to fight it.

Nothing forbiddes to you to create a telnet session to your ISP's SMTP server and create a mail message to send everyone in the world.

You can also have a SMTP server to relay your messages.

The only way you could prevent something is blocking the IP of the sender (you have that information in the message header), but even that can bring you problems, cause the webmail programs don't usualy put the real information. They assume the sender as being the server and not the client.

But, if it's possible, we could use the information in the return-path to track junkers and block them in our mailserver.

Finishing, for me this is a world class problem. Because of junk, you can have your mailbox full and so you may not receive that important mail you are expecting to.

Anikin
Hugo Alexandre Dias
Web-Programmer
anikin@anikin-skywalker.com