Finding A Recipe For Spam

Abstract

The prevalence of unsolicited e-mail, otherwise called spam, continues to haunt every user of the Internet. The overwhelming response to the governments do-not-call registry in which persons could register their telephone numbers in a database that will restrict telemarketers from calling, is an indication that people are becoming increasingly resentful of unwanted intrusions into their personal lives. It is estimated that more than a half of all e-mail, or over one trillion pieces of spam will reach the inboxes of Internet users this year but the problems of controlling spam are many since:(a) spam is virtually free for the sender (b) the SMTP protocol which governs the transmission of e-mail on the Internet was not designed to handle the complexities of deception and mistrust on a large network and (c) many major corporations are surreptitiously involved in spam. Although the development of a social conscience might keep some large corporations from engaging in spam, but spam, as we know it, would cease to exist only if either the cost of sending e-mail increased or a new secure protocol to exchange e-mail was developed. Of the two options, the quickest and easiest remedy would be to eliminate the reverse economics of sending spam by introducing a computing cost for sending e-mail.