Quote:
Cash Bounties For Spammers Win Limited FTC Backing
By Jonathan Krim, Washington Post Sep 17 2004 8:00AM
The Federal Trade Commission yesterday gave limited endorsement to offering cash rewards to people who help track down e-mail spammers, suggesting that such bounties might work but in fewer circumstances than had been pushed by some anti-spam activists.
The agency said that although Internet-savvy sleuths often can crack the technical disguises used by spammers to hide their identities and locations, the amount of information they could gather that would lead to successful prosecutions would be limited.
Instead, the FTC said that if Congress decides to set up a bounty system, it should reward only whistle-blowers inside or close to spam operations, who could provide detailed evidence that would lead to the operations being shut down.