Spam-proofing the mail system

Spam-proofing the mail system

Posted Dec 19, 2003 4:50 UTC (Fri) by brouhaha (subscriber, #1698)
In reply to: Spam-proofing the mail system by Ross
Parent article: Spam-proofing the mail system

Who would fund mailing lists?

In a micropayment email system, the recipient sets the amount of the micropayment, which can vary depending on the sender. Most people would whitelist their friends and charge nothing. Presumably they would do this for mailing lists as well, and if the mailing list attempted to deliver to a recipient demanding a payment, would simply drop that recipient from the list.

That leaves open the possibility of a spammer masquerading as a list server, but other anti-spam techniques such as SPF easily thwart such misrepesentation.

It also would be possible to set the amount fairly high, but refund it in the case of unsolicited but non-spam email. For instance, I'd probably set my software to charge at least $0.25, and perhaps as much as $1, for unsolicited email from non-whitelisted senders. But for non-spam email, for instance people inquiring about free software I've written, I would refund it.

Probably a fee as low as a penny would discourage a lot of spam, but having the fee higher would serve to also discourage email from students that want me to do their EE or CS homework for them. (I get such email routinely as the result of having a web page about PIC microcontrollers, despite the web page clearly stating that I don't have time to offer free help.)

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