the end of email?

http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupda...897473,00.html

Imagine an Internet with no e-mail. As ludicrous as it sounds, it could happen. And it won't take some new virus or worm to render the Internet useless. All it will take is unsolicited commercial e-mail, otherwise known as spam.

You think I'm kidding? Consider this: Spam begets blacklists, and ISPs use blacklists to isolate sources of spam. Already, these blacklists are preventing thousands, perhaps millions of innocent e-mails from arriving at their destinations. At the rate we're going, it won't be long before all e-mail ---- spam or not --- ends up in the dead letter bin.

As I described in my previous column, a lot of legitimate e-mail is being blocked from getting to its destination because the system from which the e-mail originates has the same unique Internet Protocol (IP) address as a positively identified source of spam. In other words, if the service provider that hosts your e-mail is using the same physical system to host the e-mail of another customer, and that customer turns out to be a spammer who is discovered by the organizations that run the blacklists, then that system's IP address, along with all of the outbound e-mail (including yours) that comes from it, gets blacklisted

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This leads me to believe that if we want something done about spam maybe we should have it affect someone with clout, like AOL. If aol found that none of its subscribers could send email outside of their network something would be done about it on a global scale. Hell, that would be bad for buisiness!

I think it is a valid argument. I hate recieving spam mail. I have found several ways around it though.

For instance.

When I want to recieve a newsletter or to sign up for a site, I use one address.
...to recieve personal mail, I use a different address.
...to recieve business related mail, I use a different address.
...to recieve school mail yet another address.

I use other programs like mailwasher to pull down my mail first, then block anything and blacklist servers from the eastern part of the world where spamming is tollerated on their servers. I also use my firewall's privacy features to try to keep my personal data and e mail data from getting into the bots lists.

All of this has helped, but not solved the problem.

We have pretty much the same deal with snail mail but on a much smaller scale due to cost of postage and paper and the other various expenses. I recieve tons of snail mail but only a small portion of it I actually want and read.

At least snail mail can be put into a 'log-roller' and burned in the fireplace :-)

It is definitely getting out of control. That's why I started using choicemail on my pop accounts. Since the spam outnumbers the valid messages, I start with the premise that all email is blocked and I approve senders on an individual basis. If they send mail to me and are not approved, they get a customizable autoresponse asking why they want to contact me. It's got its downfalls, but overall I've been happy with it. I beleive the website is www.digiportal.com

i dont think email *can* end. at least not end completely. i can see some changes being made for instance an UTC
only allowing a certain amount of mail a day or even per minute./hour/second going out, and that everyone be made to use that client or something similar or email wouldnt work. But then you have to think of the security issues with that. Nothing could stop email. its the internets #1 tool.

SPAM is a 'fallout' result of the DOT-gones. DOT.coms used to pay for websites by advertising free. With their demise, they have found other ways to spread their messages.
Most SPAM(mers) use a spider progam against an ISP to get email addresses. And from what I understand it is a simple measure to block those spider programs (read that here some time ago). If ISP's would block the spider programs: SPAM would disappear

what about using something similar to what a network card uses as an NIC address, since these are all unique, would the same apply to a dialup modem / dsl or something like that?

maybe something like what is used in winxp activation could be used, like a unique hardware / computer serial no hash to identify each computer for the purposes of just this problem?

and for those of you concerned about privacy online (which i am too) this would only be accessible for the pruposes of determining whether this computer is being used to distribute spam?

Spam definitely does increase, maybe by the day. But certain measures can be taken to try to slow spam down to little/none. PhishPhreek has a pretty good plan and I'd probably think it would work. The only thing with that is the hassle. Having to check different e-mail addresses can be a pain, so I'm not sure how you'd take that. Another member is a mail filter or a program that auto-forwards junk to the trashbox. Some firewalls even have an e-mail control option to it that can help.

There are many programs that will help with this increasing problems, but like Home Computer Security, it's up to you the actions you take against it. (Just make sure it's legal ;)).

I know I am really old now because I remember the day that one would be called or flammed have their very web accress acount called into question if one sent email to someone they did not know, some graces were given on the birth if the web but it was in general rude to send email to people you did not know. When did it go to hell? Best I can say is when AOL opened a portal ot to the web within weeks AOL users who were used to spamming each other begain to send it out to any valid email on a web page. AOL programmers think they invented something with spiders that harvested email address , well not really many knew how to do this only they were not so rude of a programmer to actually do it. So as history stands AOL innovations included SPAM, so lets all post AOL Webmaster and tanks him? LOL they block the very crap they started in 1996 also why but to make $$$. My slant on events between 1194 and 1996, throw in MS late 1996 1997 and crap M$ invented it all yep after invading the U of W and other Universities and under the freedom of information act figured out how it all worked :)

dcongram , I agree that you need to eliminate the source, but when you consider that most names are gathered in like, lets say, chat rooms..... how are you ever going to stop that? Only possible if you stop the rooms.

Anywho, its a big problem with no simple answer...

<shameless plug>
You could always use ProcMail! You too could have squeaky clean email free from the dingy, scum buildup of spam.
</shameless plug>

Blacklists are unfortunately a necessary evil in the war against spam, but they do offer some benefits. When you are 'blacklisted' as an ISP, you are generally provided notice (even if you aren't, you can generally find out that your mail is going into a black hole from the logs). Frequently, you have the option of contacting the owner of the list and asking why you were blacklisted. They will usually be able to provide you with some documentation, and from there you can seek out the evil spammer on your own network or setup some outgoing mail filters to catch it if they try it again. This is often enough to get you removed from the blacklist, and you are again in good standing with the internet community.

I look at getting blacklisted like getting a parking ticket. If you get blacklisted, you know you should have been more careful about monitoring your outgoing email (like blocking relaying, monitoring load spikes on your mailserver, etc), and getting blacklisted is an unfriendly reminder to pay more attention in the future. Most ISPs will do anything they can to get off the blacklist and return to good standing, so I don't forsee spam bringing email to a grinding halt. It's just one of those nuisances we all have to learn to deal with.

Whenever a visit a site that wants info and has "special"-offers I just do what the spammers do... So what is it that I do?

I hand them a load of bullcrap...

Your name: Stupid idiot
Email: [email protected]
Phone Number: "phone number to a company that has telemarketers"
Address: "Go to a site and have the number matched to a address"
Sex: Maybe later, darlin.

Blocking messages doesn't seem to help but beleave me IT DOES!
I got a second account for about a year now and I've yet to recieve hardly any letters except for peaple in my guest book.

I think you are blowing it out of all proportion. True, spam is on the increase, but it's still going to be a long time before spam becomes overwhelming.

Plus also, spam identification software that uses algorithms like this http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html will work increasingly well.

Spammers continue because companies pay them to send spam. Some are fraudulent like the "Money out of Africa" scam, but most are advertising legitimate products, paid for by the vendors.

I think that spammers will wake up once spam-blocking becomes more commonplace and internet users become more wary, and start sending less, but better targetted, more relevant spam.

Ultimately it should prove more useful to both the spammers and the recipients.

In related news to Spam, I was reading this article at Yahoo.com and found it interesting. Let me know what you think

Quote:

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sick of being inundated with get-rich-quick schemes and Viagra ads in your e-mail? Well, get used to it because, despite concerted efforts to fight it, "spam" is expected to get worse before it gets better, analysts say.

The average American will get more than 2,200 spam, or unsolicited bulk e-mail, messages this year and 3,600 by 2007, Jupiter Research forecasts.

"It's getting easier to send spam messages. You can buy a CD-ROM with millions of e-mail addresses for next to nothing and send it out for next to nothing," said Jared Blank, senior analyst at Jupiter.

Spammers continue to come up with new and ingenious ways to bypass filters by misspelling words, sending e-mails from what appears to be yourself and putting messages in the subject lines that make people think the mail is from a friend.

Working just as furiously, companies are trying to help consumers and businesses, including some Internet services, to combat spam by coming up with new technologies -- creating a hot new sector -- with players like Brightmail Inc. and programs from McAfee.

Brightmail, for example, works with companies and Internet service providers to fight spam at the desktop and also offers a product that consumers can run to protect against computer viruses.

"Spammers are clever people and there is clearly an arms race between spammers and people trying to prevent spam that just constantly escalates," said Forrester analyst Jim Nail. "Having simple lists of spammers and domains -- that's not enough because spammers change domains or addresses to stay ahead."


FILTERS AND BLACKLISTS

Filters that work on a keyword basis to block spam depending on how frequently certain words appear don't work because spammers misspell words or write shorter e-mails so there are not as many occurrences. Blacklists, which only get 10 percent of spam and often get rid of valid e-mails as well, won't work, analysts said.


"It is worse. Newer tactics include harvesting attacks, which are trying to find out names and addresses of people who live in this enterprise," said Joyce Graff, analyst at Gartner. "It's like a virus game, so if you don't have a lab looking for new ploys -- whatever you implement won't be working for you in six months."

Brightmail said its recent data shows that spam has gone up from 8 percent of all Internet e-mail to about 40 percent.

"One of the challenges we find is that spam is global. A lot of it gets routed through unsecure servers," said Enrique Salem, chief executive of Brightmail. "So, as that happens, it's outside of any one country's jurisdiction."

The industry was collaborating with government agencies around the world to cut down on the problem, he added.

Analysts said there is hope for some relief in the future as regulators begin to take notice.

"While spammers are hard to track down and prosecute, you get a few of them and it will scare off others," Nail said.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued six junk e-mailers who bombarded Internet users with illegal pyramid schemes, fraudulent loans and e-mail filters that actually attracted spam instead of blocking it.

While spam is widely viewed as a nuisance, it is not illegal under U.S. laws.

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Seem's interesting nonetheless and sad. This whole spamming thing has gotten out of control, and people need to be more aware of the actions they can take to try to deter the amount of spam they recieve. What interested me most was the quote " The average American will get more than 2,200 spam, or unsolicited bulk e-mail, messages this year and 3,600 by 2007, Jupiter Research forecasts." For some reason, I think it's more than that in a year (or this year) and I think it's going to get more worse than they say. I definitely hope not, but it's the sad truth.

i'm not sure about most people but i use yahoo mail and the most spam i have ever gotten in one day is 2. i try not to hand out my e mail address to much.