[oclug] I am angry. Spam went to far today. Want to fight back.

[Stephen M. Webb]

On 12/09/07 11:47, William Case wrote:
>
> On one hand I, like most others, want to keep the Internet free of
> governmental interference, laws and rules.  On the other hand, I want to
> stop this stuff.  Surely if enough individuals have programs that can
> reverse spam etc. on their desktops, users with a button push can cause
> enough trouble for the spammers or their IPs that spamming or supporting
> spamming can become a losing proposition.

(1) flinging back poo would double the amount of internet traffic due to spam.  
Spam already accounts for the majority of internet traffic.  You will likely 
end up blacklisted as a spammer yourself.

(2) where are you going to fling the poo?  Perhaps to the "From:" address 
field?  I will cretainly be first in line to hunt you down and flay you alive 
and feed your entrails through a paper shredder if you contribute to the 
already sizeable backscatter problem I experience.

(3) do you really want to confirm to the sender that they've reached a valid 
address?

The big problem is that the current email protocols were not designed with 
malicious users in mind.  It's not really possible to change them now.  Your 
best bet is to grit your teeth and quietly delete spam without any reply.

--smw