

How to stop spam from free email accounts - lisper
http://rondam.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-stop-spam-from-free-email.html

======
sealedidentity
What the blogger said, 1\. Whenever a message is sent to a recipient that has
never received a message from that account before, modify the message to
include a link at the top that the recipient can click on if the message is
spam.

\--This is probably something workable, but then it needs a certain proactive
work from users which I think people who don't clear their inboxes don't do
normally.

2\. Limit the number of new recipients that can receive email from that
account to a few dozen a day.

\--nope, won't work. What about jobseekers who spam employers. As much as this
is spam, there are diamonds in the rough.

3\. If the number of spam reports from that account exceeds a certain
threshold, shut the account down.

\--workable. but what if the user's computer is spambotted? not everyone is an
expert. probably a few days warning before a shutdown is a workable solution
here. again, it'd be better if the server informs the user of spam flagging
and intercept outgoing messages until they agree to a TOS. If there're still
TOS violations, shut it down.

4\. Require a valid credit card number to set up a new account.

\-- nope. privacy issues. just not worth it.

~~~
lisper
> This is probably something workable, but then it needs a certain proactive
> work from users which I think people who don't clear their inboxes don't do
> normally.

Doesn't matter. As long as a big enough percentage of the recipients
participate it will work.

> What about jobseekers who spam employers. As much as this is spam, there are
> diamonds in the rough.

This is for free email accounts only. ISP's could charge a progressive
schedule of fees for accounts with fewer restrictions. It would still serve to
eliminate spam because spam relies on the accounts being actually free in
order to be profitable.

> privacy issues. just not worth it.

Again, this is for free accounts only. I'm a big privacy advocate, but I think
a compromise on privacy to reduce spam is a worthwhile tradeoff.

------
bigtoga
If it was this easy, I just have to believe it would've been done already in
the past 10 years.

