Will certified e-mail stop spam? (was: unsubscribing... etc)

[Jason Spiro]

On 4/11/06, Zbigniew Koziol <softquake-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> This all actually comes back to the problem I once mentioned: smtp is a mess,
> a hugest mess on the internet bettween all other communication protocols.

SMTP has problems that make spammers' jobs easier.

But at least some ISPs are experimenting with new anti-spam
techniques, such as allowing email senders to pay a tiny fee to bypass
spam filters. Perhaps once enough large e-mail providers adopt this
technique, the spam problem will be reduced.

Of course, as Wikipedia[1] points out, when malware authors send email
from the PCs they infect, they will probably find a way to charge
those fees to the PCs' owners. Hopefully that will only encourage
people to be more careful about PC security instead of being a fatal
blow to the popularity of cost-based systems.

Jason

[1] See http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Stopping_e-mail_abuse#Cost-Based_systems
and scroll down to the "Issues" heading.
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