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IBM Researcher Offers an E-Stamp Spam Solution

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the that-would-do-it dept.

UnanimousCoward writes "This Internet Week article describes a research project by Scott Fahlman that looks to limit spam using e-stamps. Here is more detailed description of the system under his CMU homepage along with a link to the original paper." As crappy as it sounds, charging some tiny fee per email would cut spam dramatically. 207 of the buggers so far today. Hundreds of megs a month. I'd love to see something done.

5 of 440 comments (clear)

  1. Really now, there is a much simpler solution. by Chemisor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nearly all the spam I get comes from bogus addresses. If SMTP servers did not allow forging of the from: address, the problem would be drastically reduced since the spammers would have to get new accounts much more frequently, and most people would be able to block all the "free" email domains like hotmail and msn, where spam is most probably coming from.

  2. what about mailing lists ? by selderrr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    many developers depend on them. I hardly ever send mail to such lists, but read all of them. Not really fair if they'd have to pay for sending me valuable information.

    It's so silly to see so many complex anti spam solutions, if all we need is jurisdiction aruond the concept. The biggest issue with spam is that tere's no law forbidding it. Fix that, and trigger happy lawyers will take care of the problem.

    --
    When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
  3. Re:i doubt it by slugo3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    think of how much you would get if sending junk mail was free

  4. Not quite sure you've grabbed the concept. by goldcd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The bulk mail subsidises your 'regular' mail. Your post office runs an infrastructure to let you buy individual bits of gummed paper, tramps around the country individually receiving each bit of mail you've written, tries to decipher the scrawl you've made across the front with the biro and then delivers- all for your 37 cents a pop. The junk mail sender just drops several thousand pre-paid, pre-typeface-addressed identically sized mailshots on their doorstep. They're obviously a lot cheaper to process, but bring up the number of items they handle allowing them to pass on the ability to send a 37c letter to you due to economies of scale.

  5. Re:i doubt it by baltimoretim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    E-mail spammers have another advantage over their snail-mail counterparts: senders of traditional paper junk mail have to pay for printing the things. This extra cost associated with paper junk-mail is another check on how much of it you get. Per-piece costs depend on the size of the press run, of course, but say you wanted to send a 4-color, 1-page brochure to 100,000 addresses. You might pay .10 a piece for the printing, a $10,000 fee right up front. Your internet spammer, however, has the advantage of paying nothing to "print" their ad.