[MadIvan]

I don't like spam.

Regards, Ivan

[Dan Cooper]

I've been using SpamAssassin for about 6 months now to protect my family's mail accounts. It is an open source project and uses rules and heuristics to identify spam signatures in the mail header or in the body content. It's not perfect and the occasional piece of spam gets through, but nothing like the 50 to 60 spam emails I used to get every day.

SpamAssassin filters the mail on my server and assigns a score for each spam-like trait in the header or body. If the score is high enough it replaces the mail with a warning message with the original mail as an attachment. My mail client puts any such messages in the deleted folder. There are also client based versions of the same technology that filter the mail as you download it from your ISP's POP3 server.

[Publius6961]

The solution is simple:

Devise a way to send back all unsolicited mail as an alternative to the "garbage bin".
Legislate that if they have the "freedom of speech" to send it, they have the obligation to take it back if it offends or creates hardships.

It is small comfort, perhaps, but I predict a screeching halt to the abuse.

[lizma]

he thinks twice about his two young children using the family computer. “Some of the material is sickening.

My 8 yo daughter just started a few weeks ago getting porno spam. The only websites she has given her email address to was Harry Potter and Barbie.com. Makes you sick.

I use two address, one for family and friends, one to order stuff. In three years I've never recieved ANY spam on my personnal address, ordering address is a different story.

My mail domain is only 5 people and not worth targeting.

The only spam I get is from the companies I've given my address to and then they appear to sell it.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

...the number of e-mails we don’t want to receive will overtake the number we do.

I think they are a little late with the prediction. I get about 75 SPAM e-mails at work over the weekend and about 25 per work way. It costs the business money. Plus I'm tired of "Your Credit Debt," "Be 4 Inches Larger," and "Massive Hooters" e-mails showing up at work. The spammers have everyone at work's e-mail addresses so we all get the crap. The Internet really does need some kind of e-mail authentication method, blocking SPAM.

[1FreeAmerican]

This is AL GORE'S FAULT!! After all- he invented the internet!!

[LibKill]

I think Focault has been at it again.

Bad, bad, Focault! Breaking the internet once wasn't enough?

[steve-b]

Ultimately, the solution is two-part:

1. Filtering

2. Laws that treat deliberately attempting to bypass a spam filter the same as they treat any other attempt to gain unauthorized access to somebody else's computer. (For those keeping score at home, that means about 2-5 years of experiencing just how well "herbal viagra" and "penile enhancements" worked for your cell mate.)