All the good ISPs who want to fight the spam problem should participate in a project to maintain a database, much like DNS, with trusted e-mail addresses.
Before e-mail ends in your mailbox it is checked whether the sender can be trusted. If it appears not to be on the Big White List (BWL) your personal white list is checked. If both fail, it is spam and you will not see it.
After a while some spammers are going to use white listed addresses. This is fraud and the receiver of the e-mail will immediately notify the victim by replying to the spam. The victim can then try to sue the spammer with existing anti-fraud legislation.
This will eliminate spammers from the Western world where anti-fraud legislation is effective. Some victims might even get rich when their spammer is tracked down and convicted.
The e-mail sent by Nigerian spammers and the likes who abuse white listed addresses can be temporarily flagged in the white list as soon as the first recipient of the spam notifies the BWL. Any address can be temporarily flagged by anyone like this, until the spamrun is over.
If a spamrun with your address is reported, your e-mail can only be saved by personal white lists by the people you send e-mail to. You know when your address is temporarily flagged by the BWL because you will receive an e-mail explaining why and how long the flag will remain. In the meanwhile you might not want to send e-mail to addresses of which you are not sure to be included in their personal white list.
If someone flags your address just for fun his provider (if he takes part in the BWL project) will terminate his contract and recommend to other ISPs not to accept this person as a client.
How will the BWL be set up? - only addresses that exist for one year or more - no free or sponsored addresses (Hotmail, Yahoo, etc) - the client databases of all serious ISPs - only e-mail lists with confirmed opt-in policies
If you use Hotmail or similar addresses you have to make sure your address is in the personal white list of a recipient you send e-mail to. ISPs can offer a service to their clients to request access to a personal white list through their website. The owner is then notified by e-mail about the request from someone to be white listed.
This whole idea is not the Final Ultimate Solution to the Spam Problem but rather an extra service for those who already have chosen for white listing personally as a way to prevent spam. Unfortunately I can't use a white list myself because I am a freelancer who sometimes receives email from strangers, although their addresses can easily be recognised as trustworthy with the mentioned rules.-- rrr, Oct 10 2003 POPmonitor software with Trust feature http://www.vechtwij...q.html#Anchor-65386While reading about the Trust action in this e-mail filtering software I got this idea [rrr, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] junk mail filter http://www.halfbake...unk_20Mail_20Filtera sort of similar thing for real mail [neilp, Oct 04 2004] The scheme also doesn't address the fact that spammers liberally borrow other people's e-mail addresses.
Years ago now, some idiot entered a non-working address on one of my college alumni domains into one or more porn sites (I'm guessing it was a typo, since there is a student union domain for the same college with two letters transposed); after being deluged with porn messages, I blocked that address with an autoresponder. Now I find I get spam purportedly from that non-existent address.-- DrCurry, Oct 10 2003 An interesting and vaguely related observation: since putting our phone numbers on the FTCs "Do Not Call List" our household has received more telemarketing calls than ever.
[jutta]: what a fantastic link.-- bristolz, Oct 10 2003 Don't trust whitey.-- thumbwax, Oct 11 2003 random, halfbakery