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Spam-Free Email-How Much Would that Be Worth to You?
Elias Israel asks: "Being a believer in free-market solutions, wherever possible, I am puzzled by the relative lack of technical/business solutions to the problem of SPAM. Given that dealing with SPAM wastes so much of our lives these days, and given that the famed 'time = money' equation has not yet been repealed, I'm at a loss to understand why I can't find more commercial solutions to this problem. Having heard long ago that whenever the question is 'why' the answer is always about money, I'm asking for Slashdot readers' help: Can it really be that there's no money to be made in cleaning up spam? So, if you could virtually eliminate spam from your inbox, how much would you be willing to pay to make that happen? Given that filtering spam is an ongoing and evolving hassle, would you be willing to pay an annual or monthly fee, and if so how much? Maybe if we can figure this out, the economics of a solution will emerge." Given that now SPAM includes e-mail viruses from your favorite Washington-state based company, the rules of the game are now MUCH more different than they were. Still, would some of you out there be interested in paying to remove SPAM from your inbox?
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
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
You have a good point. The only sure way to filter out ALL SPAM is to have someone else read it. Of course there are preventive measures that can be taken to make sure that you never get SPAM to begin with -- or at least minimal SPAM.
1. Sign up for a free email account that you don't plan on using for your main email address. It's much easier to let go of an email account (if you have to) when you aren't shelling out money for it. You should have two... A main email address and a dummy email address.
2. Use the dummy email address to sign up for any sites where the email address might be stored or displayed on a page. That's usually where spammers will get your email address by using harvesting software.
3. The main address can be given out to family and friends, but NEVER post it on a message board. That's pretty much asking for it. This way, only legitimate email will come to your inbox.
4. Check the dummy act about once a week for legitimate email that may have found its way there by mistake, and if need be, send a reply email with the main email address. Delete the SPAM.
5. Accept the fact that sometimes SPAM is sent out to random email addresses, and you may still get one or two a week.
6. DO NOT EVER reply to SPAM, and don't ever follow instructions to be removed from the "mailing list." This just lets the spammer know that someone is actually reading the email, and you will get even more.
7. DON'T BUY ANYTHING. If people never bought anything from someone who sent them spam, do you honestly think that they would continue to go through the trouble of sending it?
Maybe not a complete solution, but I can almost guarantee that it will make a fairly large dent in the ammount of spam you get.