Plotting a way to stop spam

[liorean]

Not going to do much other than giving a few links:
<http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/01/09/bus2.feat.geek.camp/index.html>
<http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/10/12/SpamPlan27>
<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/news/20021114.html>

So, what do you guys think about this? Good idea/bad idea? Why so?

[raf]

Personally, i've never had a spam problem.
I think i received about a dozen of unsollicited mails over the last 5 years on my personal or company adresses
.
The solution is simple : don't pulish your emailadress anywhere + create a dummy account you only use if you need to supply an emailadress for downloading or registring.

I honestly don't understand why some people put an 'email me' link on their site, or why they post it inside message or so.

About your links:
These articles annoyed me more then the spamming i've experienced.
- I didn't read the first one because the text is given about 10% of the available pagewidth. If email would come with 90% unsollicited content, i also would'n use it
- In the second article, i needed to read about half the article to get to their message: Charge $0.01 per email and spamming wount be attractive any more.


That is simply naive and is in itself not a sollution. The only sollution is to not disclose your email-adress.

[mindlessLemming]

A seemingly feasible proposition, with obvious issues. Namely legacy, people won’t let go of free email. I must say though, my view is heavily tainted as I do not receive any spam on my 3 email accounts. It’s an astounding thing in this day and age especially with regular posting on forums/blog comments/etc. and still I get none.

Thanks for the links, got the old brain ticking on something new.

[liorean]

You don't get spam, eh? I've been a member of several mailing lists for years, as well as a few usenet channels (both of which can be harvested by mail address collectors), and I can tell you, even with rigorous spam filters a dozen or so gets through per day. It's just about 2.7 per cent of my amount of daily mail (most of which I just skip over anyway), but it's irritating.

As for putting your email address on the net, sometimes you want to allow people to be able to contact you through other means than a form on the page, and you want to make it easier for them to do so.



Then you have special cases - my homepage is named 'liorean@webgraphics.com'. Guess why I asked Nate (my host) to NOT accept mail to that address...

[raf]

even with rigorous spam filters a dozen or so gets through per day. It's just about 2.7 per cent of my amount of daily mail (most of which I just skip over anyway), but it's irritating.
Well, i only get about 10-20% of your apparent mail (10 / 2.7 * 100 = 370). Maybe thats the reason:rolleyes:

But that doesn't change anything about what the most easy and logical way is to stop spamming: don't disclose emailadresses. There is no need for sites that maintain mailinglists or usenet, to display/leak clients mailadress.

I find it a strange logic that a client should get a $0.01/mail service, because other people leak his emailadress ...

As for putting your email address on the net, sometimes you want to allow people to be able to contact you through other means then a form on the page, and you want to make it easier
for them to do so.
I can't think of any reason why sending a mail would be easier then filling out a form (which could even look like a mailclient).

Unless for people who want to write down the mailadress to pass it on to someone else, who hasn't acces to internet except for mailing, i can't think of any reason at all. You can always contact them later with a reply adress. Besides, most people don't even try to make it hard on spiders to get their adress.


About the main issue: does such service guarantys that you will not get spam ? I mean, can i ask compensation if i still would get spam?

[scroots]

i have a solution that was an idea of someone elses a long time back.

Copyright a little rhyme/phrase e.g. "this is a little riddle, and it will help me just a little".

Then anyone who sends you email has to include it somewhere in the body of the email for you to be able to read the email. Then a mail filter can be applied, for you to filter out email.

By copyrighting it if they (spammers) use it they can be prosecuted.

scroots

[Roy Sinclair]

Spammers are the scum of the earth.

But that doesn't change anything about what the most easy and logical way is to stop spamming: don't disclose emailadresses. There is no need for sites that maintain mailinglists or usenet, to display/leak clients mailadress.

My current provider seems to leak every email address within days. I recently set up a new email address and started getting spam on it within the week despite the fact that I hadn't used it or published it to anyone.

The spammers have harvesting programs that go out and actively search places, including boards like this one hunting for any email addresses they can get their slimy claws onto.

[scroots]

Roy,

Its easy to find out valid email addresses, spammers just go into the tools to setup a new email addy with a company e.g. your isp in this case. They pick an email addy and it returns not allowed already in use.

Similiar to what has been going on with hotmail.

scroots

[Roy Sinclair]

In my case I think they may be going to the point where it lists the online web sites. Since those websites each have the email name as a part of the address it's no effort at all to harvest all the email addresses in use. Unfortunately, because they did it that way in the first place they're not open to changing how it works because it'd break the links to all the existing sites.

[bcarl314]

Well, not sure about how to stop spam, but I just got this in my hotmail account today. Is this a threat???


You applied for a home loan with us on 0000-00-00 and should
have received assistance with your Good credit situation. If you
still own your Single Family Reside home in [address removed]
and were not completely satisfied or would like a better scenario,
then please re-apply with us today.

Single Family Reside Home App


Bridget Rhattigan
Account Manager Specialist

If this mail was unwanted, I will professionally delete you now.



I will professionally delete you now. ??? Seems pretty violent to me! Maybe I should call the police??? :D

[me']

Another nice post (http://dris.dyndns.org:8080/permalink.html?id=437) on the subject.

[DsgnrsTLZAdmin]

Create an account for your personal mail and never give this to anyone other than people you know.
Create an account for other things that require your email on the web.

that way, your personal email and web mail wont get mixed togethor. works fine because most the time noone checks mail other than personal anyway.

if you take the time to go through all your spam, opt-out or get off the list that SHOULD be supplied tat the bottem of the email, youll be ok then. If you dont get a link or email or anything to stop getting emails from that address, thats offical spam and is illegal and you can prosocute them for that.

[me']

Don't set up an email account at all? Brick up your letterbox? Change your name every second day?

[whackaxe]

join th MIB and get your prints erased :p

[shmoove]

Yesterday I broke down and actually bought some Viagra.
Hey ladies, I'm available.

shmoove

[mindlessLemming]

I use this method (http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/obfuscator/) to hide my email.
Skyxyz (http://www.skyzyx.com/) recommended it when I posted regarding this topic a few months back.

It's seems to be successful.