David Harris On Spam 21
Ace Suares writes "David Harris, maker of the free e-mail software Pegasus Mail, has written a white paper on spam as part of 'an active initiative to bring together a broad group of people who can promote education and legislation against spam in the New Zealand environment'."
Math lessons (Score:5, Interesting)
Last time I checked 0.001% of 10^7 was 100, not 10,000. The spammer would sell 100 bottles for a total return of $2,950, not a huge haul.
At one one millionth of a percent response, he would sell on average one tenth of a bottle.
Re:Math lessons (Score:1)
Re:Math lessons (Score:3, Funny)
the New Zealand Environment (Score:4, Funny)
Re:the New Zealand Environment (Score:2)
News to me... (Score:2)
the cost is increasing (Score:2, Interesting)
But the cost for spammers is (fortunately) increasing. We read here about a spammer having a DDoS with snail mail, about spammers getting their names and addresses published, about a spammer who was harrassed until he had to shut down his operation (in New Zealand, nonetheless).
Just last night there was this article posted [slashdot.org] and the /. effect was worse than usual... My guess is there was a DDoS atta
Re:the cost is increasing (Score:4, Interesting)
we wish..
harassed == a few phone calls (only 20? wtf?!!)
shut down == switched to search-engine and referer spamming
Personally I think 'cost' is where the answer is, but not in the form of an email tax!
Every major ISP needs to clearly define what they consider 'spam', and then lay down enforceable rules about it such as "You WILL be charged a cleanup fee. You WILL be terminated immediately. Your name, company name, and known aliases WILL be publically blacklisted."
Unlike the elsewhere-proposed 'email tax', these costs would only affect spammers.
Re:the cost is increasing (Score:1, Insightful)
The trouble is that most of society do not take their email abuse as serious as some netizens.
This activity is unlawful and imoral. Sending spam is not unlawful. A death threat is punishible by jail terms and is a very serious
Re:the cost is increasing (Score:2)
Not "acording to the NZ herald" -- according to the spammer, who happened to be quoted in that publication. Remember the rules:
Re:the cost is increasing (Score:1)
But, and this is an important "But", death threats and other serious threats are often made towards spammers (as reported in the media), even on slashdot.
I have a strong suspicion that the spammer in question probably did receive a threat or two of an unlawful nature, even if made by a few teenage boys that don't know any better.
The level of rhetoric and pseudo - violence seems to be rising against what is merely an anoying form of market
Re:Way More Important (Score:1)
Re:Way More Important (Score:1)
fuck the laws (Score:1, Funny)
Nothing about prevention (Score:2, Informative)
Following things come to mind (some are quite obvious, on the other hand your average user doesn't know these things can have a big impact):
When will we replace SMTP? (Score:1)
Of course, with a protocol as ingrained into the 'net as SMTP is, methinks it will take getting unacceptably high levels of spam traffic to push that sort of change along.
Hmmm... maybe along the same time people switch to IPv6? (yeah... right).
Re:When will we replace SMTP? (Score:3)
Perhaps you're not aware, but all servers do identify themselves. The first thing two SMTP servers do when they connect to each other is identify themselves.
It doesn't do a damn thing to reduce spam.