Saturday, December 30, 2006
End Spam
Here's a suggestion – appropriately enough from completeconfusion.com - to solve the problem of email spam and let charity raise money at the same time, with a voluntary donation.
It would be a little like the old North American Easter Seals and Lung Society "Stamps" fund-raisers, but usefully updated.
Let the United Way or Cancer Fund (but just one such charity, or one umbrella organization) sell 50 online "stamps" for $5. Email companies such as Google could then allow their users to opt in to allow new contacts only from those who used up such a United Way electronic stamp to do so (or who had been given prior permission or a password perhaps, as well.) Anyone you're already corresponding with gets through free - and if a spammer pays, one click identifying that message as spam removes future messages or imposes a new stamp fee.
Those who send new messages without a stamp get an automatic reply directing them to the charity's web page, and when they've paid the stamp fee, their message can go through.
Individuals who want to control their inbox a little more closely could impose a higher number of stamps as a fee at their discretion.
If new messages were marked as stamped (even if not blocked when unstamped) by cooperative email companies that alone would help all of us, including those recipients who hadn't opted in, considerably.
The economics of the free market suggest that as long as spam is free, it's unstoppable, because the perpetrators can amortize almost any investment in getting around filtering programs.
If you need convincing that there's really a problem, here a couple of recent articles to convince you:
. . .
"Net Watchdog: Seemingly Unstoppable Spam
Spam volumes are rising, and this new breed of junk mail is taking on an entirely new form.
Tom Spring, PC World
Tuesday, December 26, 2006 12:00 AM PST
If you're like me, each morning you greet an e-mail inbox stuffed with a new breed of fiendishly clever spam that somehow manages to elude your spam filters.
Earlier this year we thought the good guys were winning the war against spam. Back in January, I talked to spam fighters who were claiming victory in the spam wars. One company told me that the volume of spam had stopped growing at double-digit rates for the first time.
But that may have changed. Researchers and IT managers are now complaining that spam levels have risen significantly in recent months--some organizations have reported increases as high as 80 percent. Overall spam volume has increased 67 percent since August 2006, according to Barracuda Networks, an enterprise security appliance vendor." .... - PCWorld.com
. . .
"The menace in your inbox
Jonathan Weber used to face spam with equanimity. Now he wants to take a harder line:
Unlike many of my friends and colleagues, I've generally had a fairly relaxed attitude about Internet spam. Unwanted e-mails in your inbox? Just delete them – it takes a lot less energy than being an anti-spam vigilante.
But I sure don't think that way anymore.
The spam in the inbox has reached a level that annoys even me – sometimes 40 or 50 a day despite the spam filters..." - TimesOnline
It would be a little like the old North American Easter Seals and Lung Society "Stamps" fund-raisers, but usefully updated.
Let the United Way or Cancer Fund (but just one such charity, or one umbrella organization) sell 50 online "stamps" for $5. Email companies such as Google could then allow their users to opt in to allow new contacts only from those who used up such a United Way electronic stamp to do so (or who had been given prior permission or a password perhaps, as well.) Anyone you're already corresponding with gets through free - and if a spammer pays, one click identifying that message as spam removes future messages or imposes a new stamp fee.
Those who send new messages without a stamp get an automatic reply directing them to the charity's web page, and when they've paid the stamp fee, their message can go through.
Individuals who want to control their inbox a little more closely could impose a higher number of stamps as a fee at their discretion.
If new messages were marked as stamped (even if not blocked when unstamped) by cooperative email companies that alone would help all of us, including those recipients who hadn't opted in, considerably.
The economics of the free market suggest that as long as spam is free, it's unstoppable, because the perpetrators can amortize almost any investment in getting around filtering programs.
If you need convincing that there's really a problem, here a couple of recent articles to convince you:
. . .
"Net Watchdog: Seemingly Unstoppable Spam
Spam volumes are rising, and this new breed of junk mail is taking on an entirely new form.
Tom Spring, PC World
Tuesday, December 26, 2006 12:00 AM PST
If you're like me, each morning you greet an e-mail inbox stuffed with a new breed of fiendishly clever spam that somehow manages to elude your spam filters.
Earlier this year we thought the good guys were winning the war against spam. Back in January, I talked to spam fighters who were claiming victory in the spam wars. One company told me that the volume of spam had stopped growing at double-digit rates for the first time.
But that may have changed. Researchers and IT managers are now complaining that spam levels have risen significantly in recent months--some organizations have reported increases as high as 80 percent. Overall spam volume has increased 67 percent since August 2006, according to Barracuda Networks, an enterprise security appliance vendor." .... - PCWorld.com
. . .
"The menace in your inbox
Jonathan Weber used to face spam with equanimity. Now he wants to take a harder line:
Unlike many of my friends and colleagues, I've generally had a fairly relaxed attitude about Internet spam. Unwanted e-mails in your inbox? Just delete them – it takes a lot less energy than being an anti-spam vigilante.
But I sure don't think that way anymore.
The spam in the inbox has reached a level that annoys even me – sometimes 40 or 50 a day despite the spam filters..." - TimesOnline
Labels: charity, email, fundraising, spam
