the missing deep thought

[dchenes]

What this country really needs is a recognized spam industry, so we can regulate it. I was thinking about "do-not-spam" lists, but that won't work unless we can actually find the people to penalize for spamming. It's a lovely thought, though. In my own private utopia, an ISP would be able to put itself on the do-not-spam list, thereby putting all of its users on the list. Up to now, it's been working somewhat backward. A user gets spam, reports it to the ISP, the ISP attempts to block the spammer, the spammer moves on to another address, repeat ad nauseam. It would be easier if a user got spam, reported it to the ISP, the ISP put itself on the do-not-spam list, the spammer tried it again and got fined for ignoring the do-not-spam list. Of course, this will never happen, for the same reason I keep getting snail mail addressed to "Resident". (There are probably six or seven other problems with my idea, too, but I can dream, can't I?)

On a somewhat-related note, am I wrong in assuming that the links in spam messages that say "click here to remove yourself from this list" are just looking for valid e-mail addresses, and clicking on them will only lead to my getting more spam?

Comments

[lorac.livejournal.com]

That is my assumption as well. I'll click to remove myself from legitimate mail that I don't want, but never from random spam.

[skreeky]

I have always assumed that to be the case, yes.

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Sadly, it would work only if all the spammers were in the US. They're not.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

There was a move fairly early on by the Direct Marketers Association(DMA) affiliates to self-regulate. The problem rapidly became apparent that any move by the above-board and legal telemarketing industry would only serve to highlight just how small minority of them that actually represented. So, rather than make a move that would make it clear what scoundrels they were getting lumped in with, they quietly lumped themselves in with it to fight the do-not-call legislation. I rather expect the same problem would apply to 'legitimate' spammers. Any attempt at voluntary compliance on their part would just put them out of business relative to all the others.