Piece of software, or even better, online service, which collects the emails of companies and individuals who send spam (and we're talking EVERYBODY, even those basterds who write to tell you that "this isn't spam, because some stupid law says it isn't". It's all spam baby!), and then people can submit letters, commercials etc. to the Spammer Spammer service, which in turn spams all the spamming companies... SPAAAAM WAAAAAR!!! I know this won't accomplish anything, but the idea of "doing unto others..." always seems to hit the spot.
:P-- placebo, Aug 10 2000 Spamming Hardcopy Spam http://www.geek.com...e20030325019269.htmIn China. [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004] astrobastards http://www.astrobastards.net/uc/index.jspHillscap's link. [saker, Oct 04 2004] It doesn't work, it's certainly been tried, innocent people get hurt by ones with insufficient knowledge of how email works who think they can tell where something comes from (but really can't), and even if you find email addresses of spammers they're easy to change.-- jutta, Aug 10 2000 That sounds reasonable enough. Guess it was just another bad idea.
Then I propose changing the way email works altogether, so it's impossible to mask your email, change your email, or send spam at all. Everyone should get an email address along with their social security card & birth certificate, and they have to stick with it for the rest of their life. This was finding lost relatives will be a hell of a lot easier =)
Screw privacy!
:P-- placebo, Aug 10 2000 Spammers should be forced to eat Spam every day of their lives and recite the Monty Python Spam sketch as punishment.-- Belly, Aug 10 2000 I agree =)
:P-- placebo, Aug 10 2000 It's the people who BUY the stuff that spammers sell who should be punished! If nobody bought their wares or visited their web sites, would there be a reason to continue spamming?-- unco, Feb 24 2002 If they stop getting replys they will be forced to spam a wider range of people in the hope that someone will reply... it could get quite nasty before it ends..-- RobertKidney, Feb 24 2002 This would quickly escalate with the invention of the spammer spammer spammer by the spammers, and the counter-attacking spammer spammer spammer spammer. The consequences could be repetitive.-- pottedstu, Feb 25 2002 Bloody vikings!-- StarChaser, Feb 25 2002 [Belly] - Punishment????
[All] - Can I suggest a suitable alternative:
> Site sends spam
> Site gets reported
> Several of the biggest ISP's use dedicated servers to launch DOS attacks against the spammers effectivly shutting down their business's and forcing them into bankruptcy.
OR
Just all the ISP agree to maintain a central list of spammers. There web sites are then blocked by the ISP's, again forcing them into Bankruptcy.
Spamming would soon stop as bank loans to Internet companies would be provisional on them not sending spam... there is no-way the banks would be prepared to take on a risk like that...!-- CasaLoco, Feb 26 2002 Next escalation: most of the spam I get originates in Hong Kong, Bulgaria or some such lawsuit immune corner of the Big Wibble. Maybe the bigbucks nations should start imposing trade sanctions on counties which host and harbor spammers.
Within the borders of the US, UK, etc - ISPs should block out known spammers - I like the idea of that. There was some service like this running from New Zealand, but the spammers had it shut down by court order (and the world sat by and did nothing).-- jetckalz, Feb 26 2002 A Spammer Spammer is a great idea, but all the attacked website has to do is to stop responding to the IP address of the Spammer Spammer after a given number of visits from the same IP address. Or can the Spammer Spammer keep changing IP address?
Another problem might be that the central Spammer Spammer server may be coerced into attacking an innocent site, and have some liabilities. Of course, the Spammer Spammer could always be set up so that it doesn't launch an attack until, say, 100 forwarded emails are received with the same URL link from 100 different disgruntled Spam recipients.
By the way, I have done an informal study of Spam mail, and 98% of them contain a URL that the Spammer wants you to visit. Almost none has an email address, phone number, or fax number exclusively. So the target is clear and reachable.-- Big Al, Aug 26 2002 So perhaps some sort of distributed attack using unused processing cycles of many machines? Sort of zombies by consent? ("Vampires!")
I think Spammer Hammer would be a good name for such a program.-- Loris, Aug 26 2002 I posted this in another discussion thread, but I think it's more apropo here:
Unsolicited Commando http://www.astrobastards.net/uc/index.jsp
It does what you're all talking about... I haven't used it (I'm a bit scared to step over to the 'dark side', and worry that it might have ulterior motives).
But if any of you uses it and can vouch for it, I'll install it and happily shut the spammers down.-- hillscap, Mar 05 2004 random, halfbakery