Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Stupid Idea # 392: Spam blocker charges for e-mail Some entrepreneur decides that a spam filter should allow users to charge spammers for sending them mail? Get serious. When someone tries to contact a CashRamSpam customer, a message is automatically returned saying: "We regret your message cannot be delivered using ordinary e-mail because the receiver has a CashRamSpam account...If you want to succeed in reaching this receiver please register at www.cashramspam.com and resend the message from there." And exactly how many spammers does this bozo think will actually see the bounce message? How many does he think actually include a legitimate "From" header? And we thought spammers were stupid. 6:07:34 PM    Oh yeah? [] Spammers set up group to field spam-filter complaints Well, the CNet story doesn't really call them spammers but you can figure out the real motive behind this description: The Email Service Providers Coalition--a group whose members are responsible for delivering billions of commercial messages to consumers--designed a forum for people to report missing e-mail that is presumably caught in spam traps, or what are called "false positives." Some folks are legitimately upset to find their own mail blocked by a spam filter. However, that's the collateral damage in the war against spam. Only by subscriber complaints will ISPs be motivated to deal with spammers on their own networks. Seizing on the complaints of uninformed users, spammers are attempting to apply legal pressure to ISPs. Don't fall for it. If your ISP is harboring a spammer and you find your e-mail being blocked, move to an ISP which isn't spam-friendly. 2:16:59 PM    Oh yeah? []