On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:47:57 -0400, Vito wrote:

Glenn Ashmore wrote:

..... Hopefully the ISPs will wake up
some day this week and realize what is happening.
--

I advocate a 3¢ tax on every email sent, with 2¢ to the ISP for
collecting it and the rest to improve sailboat anchorages. It wouldn't
cost any of us enough to matter but it'd put the million spam/day
companies out of business fast.

Good idea. Except I would make the proceeds to subsidize homely
semi-retired boatwrights.

The thing I did not understand is where the money comes from for the
spammers. In other words, do people actually bite on spam?

A possible answer was provided using the illustration of the mortgage
or insurance spam you have probably received. The spammer sends out a
million spams a day---a tiny, tiny percentage reply, thus confirming
they want more information on insurances or mortgage rates. These hot
leads are then sold to insurance or mortgage companies for $20 a
piece.

Several of these a day and it's a living. Never mind that you had to
pollute the 'net with a million unanswered spams. That's someone
else's problem.

I've been around for a while; long enough to have seen the original
Cantor and Spiegel "green card lottery" newsgroup spam. People used to
say just ignore them; you can't any more. It takes work to wade
through them. Unfortunately, I don't think it will slow down until
there are laws in place to send these jerks up the river for 30 years.

And why not? Someone that steals a car can go to jail for a
significant time. Someone that releases viruses is causing thousands,
millions of times more damage.

Just because these guys are typically young middle class white boys
with bad haircuts should not exempt them from paying a price.