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Check out SpamCop

This site does a fair bit of what you are suggesting, including e-mail forwarding, spam tracing, generated keys, the database stuff, and more. I would like to get some of the stuff he is doing via GPL'd software (some of it is, BTW), but he does a pretty good job, and even seems to annoy the flagrant spammers a bit.

There is free spam reporting, including an anonymizer to inform the offending ISP that they are being used by spammers. They can reply to the blind e-mail forwarder, but they won't get your address directly.

If you want to build a better mousetrap, (or spam trap, as it may be), this is a good resource to use as a benchmark (or talk you out of your project... but don't let that stop you.)

So people, instead of JHD (Just Hit Delete), please try to find the time to figure out where the spam was sent from and where the spamvertized sites are hosted and report the spammers or things may become very ugly...

Spamcop automates the process with fairly good results.

Having used SpamCop from both sides (I work for a national ISP), I can't recommend it enough. The admin gets all of the pertinent information in a single mail, and the user can get feedback as to whether the issue has already been solved.

Julian (the guy who runs the service) is particularly helpful, and open to suggestions.

Spamcop takes the headers and fires off Abuse messages to every domain it finds in the trace of the spam.

The results? Well, I check my email and my wife's, and we used to get roughly identicle spams .. After using SpamCop for maybe 2 weeks, my spam count dropped off the map, while her email still gets hit. I'd say I've gone from 20 spam/day to 1 spam/day.

It's kinda spooky. Don't know why it worked for me.

If you have your own mail server running postfix, qmail or exim, then TMDA will perform this service for you (the reply-to-mail-through policy).

For everyone else, SpamCop does a similar job.

Recently, though, SpamCop switched to a heuristic spam-filter, which is quite leaky. Not only does spam get through, messages from well-known viruses come through. It stops maybe half the spam now.

So SpamCop is now no more effective than typical procmail filters. So there's no point in paying for SpamCop service any more.

Anyone know of a good challenge/response alternative to SpamCop?

I'll post my usual public service announcements here:

SpamCop is a great service for reporting spam; just paste the spam message into the web form, and it'll automatically figure out where the smap came from and send complaints off to the appropriate people.

The Spam Bouncer is a procmail-based personal spam screening tool. It's got some interesting features, but I haven't used it in a long while.

The way I avoid spam is to have my mail client screen out any email which contains any of these phrases:

to be removed
to be permanently removed
to get removed
to get off the list
to get off this list
to be taken off
to remove yourself
removal instructions
remove in subject line
"remove" in subject line
remove in the subject
"remove" in the subject
'remove' in the subject
S.1618
S. 1618

This list by itself catches about 80% of the spam I get.

Spamcop, at its core, is an automated spam processing system. It comes in a free and a pay flavor. Basically, you either cut and paste your spam into a form on their website, headers included, or you forward it as an attachment to your submission address. It slices and dices, looks for links, parses headers, records statistics, and sends notices to appropriate parties, be they ARIN contacts for IPs or abuse.net contacts for domains. There's all sorts of nifty stuff for making sure that your real email address doesn't end up in spammers' hands, instead creating a ReportID@spamcop.net address for each report (my most recent one is in the 4.75 million range). Still though, it's not perfect. Sometimes it's fooled by the mta chain, sometimes it does let an identifying bit of information slip through, and it DOES NOT parse reply-to addresses (grumble). Still though, it does do a pretty good job overall, and lets me send out reports about spam in a fraction of the time it would take to manually parse them.

For spamcop vs. @home, @home bounces anything with an @spamcop.net address, whether it's an automated report or whether it is someone using their @spamcop.net address (each paying member gets an email account that is spam-filtered, which can be used for everyday usage). Myself, I prefer Sneakemail for my mail management. Anyway, not only do they block spamcop reports, but they generally ignore even manual reports from non spamcop.net addresses. Just today, they started sending an auto-acknowledgement with a case ID of something like 1001 for every case (non-incrementing), indicating that they simply don't care anymore.

All in all, SpamCop, despite its problems, is an incredible service. It's open source too, with the code being available on SourceForge. You can use it for free, or pay $36/yr or $1/mb of mail for a lot of advanced features, such as the filtered email address, IMAP/POP3 access, black/whitelists, et al.

Now one of the top spam factories will finally die. Hopefully, any parts of it that continue under a different name will also open abuse departments. For a while now, the @home abuse department has been asleep at the wheel. Spamcop started sending complaints for abuse@home.net to /dev/null quite a while ago. This could definitely be a good thing.

It's not all "trolls and Nimda spreaders" who happen to be on @home, and could be screwed.

You're absolutely right! It's spammers too. They're in the top ten sources of spam on spam reported through SpamCop. This is even more impressive considering that they send anything from spamcop, whether it's an automated report or a manual email with an @spamcop.net address, to Dave Null, prompting many SpamCop users to send a manual report

While I feel bad about the legitimate customers, seeing a provider who is utterly unresponsive to spam complaints disappear down the drain after circling a while isn't exactly breaking my heart.

It's not all "trolls and Nimda spreaders" who happen to be on @home, and could be screwed.

You're absolutely right! It's spammers too. They're in the top ten sources of spam on spam reported through SpamCop. This is even more impressive considering that they send anything from spamcop, whether it's an automated report or a manual email with an @spamcop.net address, to Dave Null, prompting many SpamCop users to send a manual report

While I feel bad about the legitimate customers, seeing a provider who is utterly unresponsive to spam complaints disappear down the drain after circling a while isn't exactly breaking my heart.

Hi,

If more people used this, perhaps we could see spam reduce a bit...

jason

........

This free service will let you send a public spam report to network administrators. SpamCop routes your complaint accurately and works with network administrators and spammers to turn the tide.

http://www.spamcop.net

Well, acording to these links. They are not the most-spamfriendly. Plus, you can actually call UUnet's abuse staff, how many other Tier1 providers can you say that about? You talk as if UUnet never shuts down anyone, and you know that is not the case.

Hey,

Offers both FREE reporting, and advanced "you pay for it" filtering (which I think is based upon volume -- but still very cheap).

From the SpamCop FAQ:

The price is $.50 per megabyte of email processed. This charge is asessed when a) the email is received at your SpamCop account or b) when you paste email into SpamCop's reporting form and hit "parse."

Most e-mail is checked by some filters, then forwarded to your 'real' e-mail account. Also, on the members' page, there's information on a new system that's planned:

This system is currently beta, but we will be moving to full availability quickly. We are currently soliciting beta testers. Probably the most significant change is that the new system will have unlimited use for $3/month ($36/year). People who use SpamCop only for reporting spam will not notice a change.

And from the information page:

The new system has been totally redesigned to be easier to use and more reliable than ever. Received email is delivered into one of two folders, either your Inbox or your Held Mail folder. A full webmail system is available to view these folders, as well as others you create. With an addressbook, filters, and email sending capability, the webmail sysetm is all you need to do email. If you prefer, though, you can use your existing email program and read your mail using IMAP or POP protocols, just like most mail servers.

The main benefit of an '@spamcop.net' e-mail address is, however, that most e-mail addresses with 'spam' in thier names are filtered by spammers, assuming they are munged.

This means I can give out my e-mail (michaeltandy@spamcop.net) in web forums and such places, and nobody sends me any spam.

I think it's worth the cost, which is very reasonable.

Michael

Link you can click

Hey,

Offers both FREE reporting, and advanced "you pay for it" filtering (which I think is based upon volume -- but still very cheap).

From the SpamCop FAQ:

The price is $.50 per megabyte of email processed. This charge is asessed when a) the email is received at your SpamCop account or b) when you paste email into SpamCop's reporting form and hit "parse."

Most e-mail is checked by some filters, then forwarded to your 'real' e-mail account. Also, on the members' page, there's information on a new system that's planned:

This system is currently beta, but we will be moving to full availability quickly. We are currently soliciting beta testers. Probably the most significant change is that the new system will have unlimited use for $3/month ($36/year). People who use SpamCop only for reporting spam will not notice a change.

And from the information page:

The new system has been totally redesigned to be easier to use and more reliable than ever. Received email is delivered into one of two folders, either your Inbox or your Held Mail folder. A full webmail system is available to view these folders, as well as others you create. With an addressbook, filters, and email sending capability, the webmail sysetm is all you need to do email. If you prefer, though, you can use your existing email program and read your mail using IMAP or POP protocols, just like most mail servers.

The main benefit of an '@spamcop.net' e-mail address is, however, that most e-mail addresses with 'spam' in thier names are filtered by spammers, assuming they are munged.

This means I can give out my e-mail (michaeltandy@spamcop.net) in web forums and such places, and nobody sends me any spam.

I think it's worth the cost, which is very reasonable.

Michael

Link you can click

Hey,

Offers both FREE reporting, and advanced "you pay for it" filtering (which I think is based upon volume -- but still very cheap).

From the SpamCop FAQ:

The price is $.50 per megabyte of email processed. This charge is asessed when a) the email is received at your SpamCop account or b) when you paste email into SpamCop's reporting form and hit "parse."

Most e-mail is checked by some filters, then forwarded to your 'real' e-mail account. Also, on the members' page, there's information on a new system that's planned:

This system is currently beta, but we will be moving to full availability quickly. We are currently soliciting beta testers. Probably the most significant change is that the new system will have unlimited use for $3/month ($36/year). People who use SpamCop only for reporting spam will not notice a change.

And from the information page:

The new system has been totally redesigned to be easier to use and more reliable than ever. Received email is delivered into one of two folders, either your Inbox or your Held Mail folder. A full webmail system is available to view these folders, as well as others you create. With an addressbook, filters, and email sending capability, the webmail sysetm is all you need to do email. If you prefer, though, you can use your existing email program and read your mail using IMAP or POP protocols, just like most mail servers.

The main benefit of an '@spamcop.net' e-mail address is, however, that most e-mail addresses with 'spam' in thier names are filtered by spammers, assuming they are munged.

This means I can give out my e-mail (michaeltandy@spamcop.net) in web forums and such places, and nobody sends me any spam.

I think it's worth the cost, which is very reasonable.

Michael

Link you can click

Hey,

Offers both FREE reporting, and advanced "you pay for it" filtering (which I think is based upon volume -- but still very cheap).

From the SpamCop FAQ:

The price is $.50 per megabyte of email processed. This charge is asessed when a) the email is received at your SpamCop account or b) when you paste email into SpamCop's reporting form and hit "parse."

Most e-mail is checked by some filters, then forwarded to your 'real' e-mail account. Also, on the members' page, there's information on a new system that's planned:

This system is currently beta, but we will be moving to full availability quickly. We are currently soliciting beta testers. Probably the most significant change is that the new system will have unlimited use for $3/month ($36/year). People who use SpamCop only for reporting spam will not notice a change.

And from the information page:

The new system has been totally redesigned to be easier to use and more reliable than ever. Received email is delivered into one of two folders, either your Inbox or your Held Mail folder. A full webmail system is available to view these folders, as well as others you create. With an addressbook, filters, and email sending capability, the webmail sysetm is all you need to do email. If you prefer, though, you can use your existing email program and read your mail using IMAP or POP protocols, just like most mail servers.

The main benefit of an '@spamcop.net' e-mail address is, however, that most e-mail addresses with 'spam' in thier names are filtered by spammers, assuming they are munged.

This means I can give out my e-mail (michaeltandy@spamcop.net) in web forums and such places, and nobody sends me any spam.

I think it's worth the cost, which is very reasonable.

Michael

Link you can click

Hey,

Offers both FREE reporting, and advanced "you pay for it" filtering (which I think is based upon volume -- but still very cheap).

From the SpamCop FAQ:

The price is $.50 per megabyte of email processed. This charge is asessed when a) the email is received at your SpamCop account or b) when you paste email into SpamCop's reporting form and hit "parse."

Most e-mail is checked by some filters, then forwarded to your 'real' e-mail account. Also, on the members' page, there's information on a new system that's planned:

This system is currently beta, but we will be moving to full availability quickly. We are currently soliciting beta testers. Probably the most significant change is that the new system will have unlimited use for $3/month ($36/year). People who use SpamCop only for reporting spam will not notice a change.

And from the information page:

The new system has been totally redesigned to be easier to use and more reliable than ever. Received email is delivered into one of two folders, either your Inbox or your Held Mail folder. A full webmail system is available to view these folders, as well as others you create. With an addressbook, filters, and email sending capability, the webmail sysetm is all you need to do email. If you prefer, though, you can use your existing email program and read your mail using IMAP or POP protocols, just like most mail servers.

The main benefit of an '@spamcop.net' e-mail address is, however, that most e-mail addresses with 'spam' in thier names are filtered by spammers, assuming they are munged.

This means I can give out my e-mail (michaeltandy@spamcop.net) in web forums and such places, and nobody sends me any spam.

I think it's worth the cost, which is very reasonable.

Michael

Link you can click

As you can see, I don't mask my e-mail address on these posts. I am a registered user of spamcop.net, and now I get maybe 1 spam a month.

When asked for an e-mail address on a survey, a website, or to fill in anywhere, I provide my spamcop address. Also, when giving e-mail addys out to friends/family, I provide the spamcop address.

When you send a message to my account, you automatically get a bounce reply. You can reply to this message, and your message will be sent as normal. From then on, you never have to worry about it. Alternatly, I can authorize you from their simple web admin system. Also, I can deny whole domains, specific users, anything, just by filling out a couple forms.

If I don't like what I see on there (I check it about once a week), I can simply report it as spam to their ISPs, delete it, or allow it, with a few simple clicks.

They also filter out all attachments (you can turn this off if you want). My family is a group of computer neophytes, they are constantly getting viruses. I'm notified that there was an attachment, but it never gets to my box. I can safely tell them they're infected, and I never see it again.

The price is extremely good. I paid $25 for 50MB of e-mail almost a year ago. I've still got some 40MB left (most mailings are no more than 10k, usually much less).

I know I sound like a commercial, but I feel it's important to point out the great business when I find 'em.

As you can see, I don't mask my e-mail address on these posts. I am a registered user of spamcop.net, and now I get maybe 1 spam a month.

When asked for an e-mail address on a survey, a website, or to fill in anywhere, I provide my spamcop address. Also, when giving e-mail addys out to friends/family, I provide the spamcop address.

When you send a message to my account, you automatically get a bounce reply. You can reply to this message, and your message will be sent as normal. From then on, you never have to worry about it. Alternatly, I can authorize you from their simple web admin system. Also, I can deny whole domains, specific users, anything, just by filling out a couple forms.

If I don't like what I see on there (I check it about once a week), I can simply report it as spam to their ISPs, delete it, or allow it, with a few simple clicks.

They also filter out all attachments (you can turn this off if you want). My family is a group of computer neophytes, they are constantly getting viruses. I'm notified that there was an attachment, but it never gets to my box. I can safely tell them they're infected, and I never see it again.

The price is extremely good. I paid $25 for 50MB of e-mail almost a year ago. I've still got some 40MB left (most mailings are no more than 10k, usually much less).

I know I sound like a commercial, but I feel it's important to point out the great business when I find 'em.

You can buy a SpamCop email address relatively cheaply. SpamCop filters most if not all spam out for you.

~~~

P.S. The lameness filter wouldn't know ASCII art if it bit it in it's goatse.cx ass.

You can do exactly this by opening a mail account at Spamcop. It is not free, but doesn't cost too much either.

Another good service is, of course, spamcop.net.

There's a free tool to de-obfuscate the headers of Spam and send complaint letters to the appropriate abuse departments. They also have a paid filtering service that will hold any possible spam messages until you manually approve the sender (or report it as spam). Money well spent, IMHO.

Spam should be legal, as long as they include a valid return addy, and have a way to remove people (for real)

As for the valid return address, I would say this is necessary (but not sufficient) for a Spam to be "legal" in any sense (along with "ADV:" in the subject line, other standard headers to identify it as spam, and a notification of how they got my email address so that I can badger / LART the upstream company to stop selling my info).

However, the "remove" method doesn't really work because these addresses are often just a way to verify that your address is still "live". One way to test this is to send a removal request using a newly-created address, then wait to start receiving spam on that address.

The only way for "opt-out" to actually work is to have a higher-level, trusted agency maintain the opt-out list (similar to "do-not-call" lists that exist for telemarketing agencies). However, given the nature of the Internet, it's hard to say what agencies should have jurisdiction here.

Of course, the best way to deal with spammers involves a jar of honey and an anthill...

It's a cool service. Offered free, but I recomend you pay for it... doesn't cost much and it's such a great service.

I'm surprised noone has mentioned SpamCop yet. For those who don't know about SpamCop, they are a service that offers spam-filtered email accounts, and a free spam reporting service. Forward your spam to them, all headers included, and they will automagically look up the ISP that is responsible and send a complaint to their abuse hotline. I've lost track of how many spam accounts I've helped to cancel using SpamCop. Probably not 200 though, but every TOS termination helps.

The guy is talking about OUTSOURCING his email to someone else who will also provide SPAM filtering. Hosting a server to use specifically for several mailboxes sounds like a waste. Also consider the time/effort/learning required on your part to maintain and admin the box.

eMailman has some information about email outsourcing and links to providers.
SpamCop appears to, besides spam reporting, provide an email filter relay for your inbound messages. The service does cost ($.50 / MB)
LanSoft does the same thing

I know there are more. My experience with outsourced services are mixed. The lack of control & flexibility are balanced by the extended knowledge the vendor usually has, support they provide (which includes knowledge, hardware/software fixes, 24/7, etc) and the measurabley reduced headache on my end :)

...choice. I can choose to use ORBS [in a way, I do, since I use SpamCop], or I can choose not to use it. Using ORBS will block mail, some legitimate, from reaching me. But hey, that's my choice.

While the Internet is open [for the most part] territory, each of the ISP's are private entities and, if they so choose, can choose to use ORBS [or similar] to protect their customers from spam. Some will like it, some won't. The spam policy is one of the things I research about an ISP before I use them--and when they make changes in that policy, I sort through them. I have left an ISP because of a spam policy, and I won't hesitate to do so again.

If you don't like that Earthlink is using ORBS and its child processes, don't use Earthlink. It's as simple as that.

And you can even simplify the process of fighting back by using SpamCop to help identify all the appropriate places to report the abuse.

I find it surprising that we still haven't found an ideal solution to spam.

To me, an ideal solution would identify mass-mailings with 100% accuracy, identify offenders with 100% accuracy, and auto-notify their providers, all without me ever laying eyes on it.

The closest thing right now is SpamCop, which I think is great.

Meanwhile, I'm using Spamcop again. I'm surprised how much of an effect it has on new, incoming spam. My theory is that every time you shut down a spammer quickly it takes them that much more time to start spamming again...

--

Wait, wait, wait - you're joking, right? Have you ever gone door-to-door? That's hard phucking work, and it's for piss-poor pay. Get real - my e-mail address is for my communication. Unless I opt-in, I don't want you e-mailing me. The poor person who gets me over the phone gets a very simple "I don't do business over the phone" and a hangup. I wish there were an easier way to do that with e-mail. However, there are a few solutions:

SpamCop, which I use regularly.
The DMA, has its E-mail Prefence Service, which you have to renew each year, but seems to work (at least for me).
You can also contact Senator Wyden and tell him exactly what you think of his statement, and, while you're at it, send a message to each of your reps, too.

I think it's obvious to us all that spam is not equivalent to regular advertising - the First Amendment is designed to protect speech that is designed to be unpopular - in a political, religious, social and economic sense. For example, I despise the KKK, but they are protected by the First Amendment, and I respect that. I don't see spam falling under any of those categories, unless you view "Sarah Michelle Gellar Caught Giving Head" as a call for opporessed workers in Third World nations to unite (and, if you do, I think there's a serious problem with one of the two of us, and it ain't me).

For Wyden to say such a stupid remark is beyond me...and, I think, beyond the vast majority of us who understand "the new economy," spam, and the First Amendment (some of us did pay attention in school, Ron). So, I say, "Enough already."

Welcome to the club. This type of attack is called a Joe Job in geek speak. It's pretty common, especially if you've ever succeeded at getting a spammer booted off his provider. You should visit the SpamCop newsgroups; they are old hands at this and helped me with the same situation in mid-April.

My Joe was also a Javascript encoded porn ad -- it might have been the exact same spammer. Here's a clipping for comparison:

Received: from [195.6.76.211] (195.6.76.211) by amyris.wanadoo.fr; 20 Apr 2001 16:05:27 +0200
Message-ID: 00000b300739$00002642$00001399@62.168.16.146
To: Undisclosed Recipients
From: fuy1@umbc.edu
Subject: Just For You
[...headers abridged...]
html head title HardCore /title
meta http-equiv=3D"Content-Type" content=3D"text/html; charset=3Diso-88= 59-1"
/head
body bgcolor=3D"#FFFFFF"
script
function Merlin( s ) { var sRet=3D""; for(j=3D0; j=3D8364) {n =3D 128;} sRet +=3D String.fromChar= Code( n - 3 ); } return( sRet ); }

The decoder tool at NetDemon revealed that the spam was for lolital.com and visit-x.net. I contacted their hosting providers as well as wanadoo.fr (the open relay) but I don't think anything came of it.

On the bright side, not a single angry recipient wrote back to me to complain. I guess everyone really does delete spam on sight ... or maybe they happily clicked to see HardCore Teens. ;-(

THANK YOU for your donation of 1.0 slice(s) of human meat to a hungry person, paid for by: Hormel.

--

I get my fair share of spam. I report all to spamcop for processing. Many messages get examined and the IPs get sent to ORBS for possible blocking and such. The part where macromedia comes in is when spam, in HTML, has flash. There is the url in the html telling the browser where to get the appropriate plugin. Spamcop picks up on this and reports it as a spam-related service...

Help fight spam by reporting the spammers to their service providers. Most free email and web-hosting companies have terms of use argreements that forbid their use in spam, and WILL terminate the accounts of offenders. And most ISPs will take action against open relays and cancel accounts used for spamming.

The easiest way is to use SpamCop, which will automatically mail abuse reports to service providers and submit open relay information to ORBS.

It only takes a minute or two, and the more people who participate, the greater the inconvenience for the spammers.

Want to fight back? There is a super easy way to doing it.

First, report all spam you get. It's easier then you think too -- Spamcop is a great free service which parses the headers of a spam and reports it for you automagically. It's pretty keen.

Second, check out Sneakemail to prevent spam from reaching you -- period. (See the Sneakemail descripion for a full explanation of how it works. Suffice to say, it is tres cool.)

---

Of course, when forged headers are used (as is mostly the case) you rely on the cooperation of the ISP to obtain the users identity.

Or use SpamCop to parse the headers and automatically route the spam to the abuse department of the ISP where it originated.

For about a year, I replied to most spam that I got, complaining and asking to be removed...Perhaps spammers remove your email address after a certain amount of time, figuring that there is no way anyone would ever keep their email address more than five years...

Never, never, never reply to a spammer. Replying to a spammer is the best way a spammer has to verify that your address is fresh, and there's a live body on the end of the email address. Frankly, I'm surprised you don't receive much more spam.

Once spammers have proven your address to be live, your email address is much more valuable, and you can expect spam for years to come. My old email address from 10+ years ago (which was unactivated for 7 years) still recieves weekly spam.

The only way I've been able to make a dent in the amount of spam that I recieve, is through SpamCop. Some may disagree with its tactics or methods, but it does much of the drudgework of parsing forged headers and complaining to the proper authorities for me quickly and easily. Plus there are free and for-pay versions. Worth a look-see.

You can automate this process by using spamcop.net.
--

Those particular e-mails especialy piss me off Those assholes have the balls to tell me that their spam isn't spam? I emeidiatly proccess those through spamcop

What's up with that bill ? Is that true or is it just FUD, a lie ? Since i'm not from the US i don't know anything about their laws.

The bill S.1618 was introduced in 1998, but didn't make it into law. There's more information on this at SpamCop.

(What's particularly silly about this is that so many of the spammers are outside the US. If, as has happened, I'm in the UK and I get spammed by a guy from the Far East who's faking an address in Latin America, how can what the US Senate might or might not have thought about it be in the least applicable?)

Anyway, if i reply i only get a "user killed" or something similar...

NEVER REPLY, at least, not to the sender. If you do, they'll keep your address on file (and possibly sell it on) because your address is suddenly more valuable for spam-- they'll know there's a real human who's reading mail sent to it. If you really want to complain, you could try mailing abuse@ their ISP: it works, sometimes.

Death to Spam is a good read on the subject. You might also like to check out the alt.spam FAQ.

What's up with that bill ? Is that true or is it just FUD, a lie ? Since i'm not from the US i don't know anything about their laws.

The bill S.1618 was introduced in 1998, but didn't make it into law. There's more information on this at SpamCop.

(What's particularly silly about this is that so many of the spammers are outside the US. If, as has happened, I'm in the UK and I get spammed by a guy from the Far East who's faking an address in Latin America, how can what the US Senate might or might not have thought about it be in the least applicable?)

Anyway, if i reply i only get a "user killed" or something similar...

NEVER REPLY, at least, not to the sender. If you do, they'll keep your address on file (and possibly sell it on) because your address is suddenly more valuable for spam-- they'll know there's a real human who's reading mail sent to it. If you really want to complain, you could try mailing abuse@ their ISP: it works, sometimes.

Death to Spam is a good read on the subject. You might also like to check out the alt.spam FAQ.

Interruption ads would work in streaming media, especially since most streaming media is played by closed-source players that could disable fast-forward. But streaming media has to be something people really want to watch before they bother. Most web sites are akin to print media. And interruption-based ads in print media will annoy more than they sell. (It's been tried; there was a period in the 1970s when most paperback books came with ads on stiff card stock bound in. People hated that so much the industry had to drop it.)

If this were going to work, it would have been tried in streaming porn by now. Has it?

Spamcop, of all things, has "interruption-based advertising" now. If you use Spamcop to report spam, and aren't a paying member, you get a 5-second JavaScript countdown before the requested action takes place. (Although that's not why you want to become a member; it's the incoming mail filtering service that's useful.)

And then there's SpamCop, which gives you the satisfaction of getting booted from their ISP.

I used to do what you are doing, have you tried spamcop? It saves me a lot of time. I just forward the spam to spamcop@spamcop.net, I get a reply with a URL, hit the URL, it traces everything for you and prepares a letter you can send with the push of a button. Most of the time it gets stuff right, though of course you still need to double check everything before you send... but it's a great timesaver.

Sounds like something they need to incorporate into SpamCop

You just almost described SpamCop, except SpamCop is even more functional. I'm only affiliated as a satisfied customer.

Try Spamcop it seems to work pretty well.

The SpamCop is moving in exactly this direction.

They jumped to the new Linux kernel, when it was released, and had to go back due to problems, which I myself (as a frequent user) witnessed.

According to their front page, they reverted to Linux-2.2 and their new servers are running FreeBSD... Make your own conclusions.

-mi