Perhaps I am being too simplistic but to me it seems fairly obvious that spammers aim is to get paid for spamming people to get them to go to various sites or advertise an item from a particular sails point.

Would it be too difficult therefore to put an immediate world wide block on a site that is paying spammers to push forward their site or goods (i.e., the one that you are taken to or the one that the link leads too. If the site is a legitimate one then they can appeal and be cleared after a suitable but very, very fast investigation.

If there is no money to be made by spamming then there is likely to be less interest in doing it.

Stop - because that is what needs to be done to spammers

Why dont ISP filter site by poisoning the DNS?

Obviously you'de have to have the option to turn it off... have it so you can log into your ISPs web site and set it to allow certain types of sites... or ALL sites, at your own discretion.

Better still would be to include port-filtering, again with the option to turn it off. You should be able to log into your ISPs web site and say "Yes I play half life 3 but NO I don't run my own mail server"... or YES open all the ports.

Sounds a bit OTT but most of the ISPs customers are grunts who only use Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and MSN Messenger. (And ovbiously windows update and antivirus updates.) They don't need the ability to run their own email server or host half-life tournements. Anyone capable of doing anything that needs lots of ports is also capable of logging onto their ISPs web site and telling it to open the ports.

The IPs could save a fortune in bandwidth, (and none of their customers would complain) by blocking neffarious ports and poisoning the DNS to dead-end requests to adservers.

As long as you had an option to turn it off everyone would be happy, and the ISPs would save a fortune in bandwidth.

It can be argued that cockroaches have a legitimate place in their ecology.

Spammers are simply parasites -- they destroy the host system in which they feed.

But like cockroaches, spammers shun the light and are very hard to kill.

Never buy anything offered in spam. It's 99% likely to be fraudulent anyway, and buying it just encourages more spam. Educate your friends!

Seems like they're hosting the baddies. But I guess it makes more sense to go after a million different bots making accounts on Google.

Is that it costs virtually nothing to spam 4 gazillion people, so even if they only sell a palet load of viagra - then its worth it.

It should just be against the law. You get caught spamming, then it's a slapping you get. Of course, what you define is spam is another matter.

British Airways have been bugging me recently no end :-@

Only problem there is that it's then easy to take out rival websites simply by spamming on their behalf. Wait for the very, very fast (yeah, right) investigation to clear them, then do it again. And again.

“Would it be too difficult therefore to put an immediate world wide block on a site that is paying spammers to push forward their site or goods […?]”

Not at all. I'm quite certain that there's somebody in .pk who'll happily do that :-)

your apartment was infested with spammers, it would be an order of magnitude more horrible than roaches.

Bill because he looks a little roach-like.

--- Is that it costs virtually nothing to spam 4 gazillion people, so even if they only sell a palet load of viagra - then its worth it.

Oh come on now. Do you honestly believe that any company that spams you is legitimate? They're not even selling a single Viagra pill, let alone a pallet. They're hoping some moron will give them their credit card details, nothing more.

Paris isn't even that dumb.

"Never buy anything advertised in spam" is pointless advice. If you send off your money for a fake Rolex watch (why? The only people who wear Rolex watches, even real ones, are tossers -- who the hell wants to look like a tosser?) you most probably won't receive anything anyway.

"Spam 'em back" won't work, either, because the contact mailbox is invariably unusable.

The people who send all these millions of messages about "\/1/\9r@", counterfeit "//atches", pirated "0EM" software and dodgy shares aren't the ones making the money ..... they're the ones *having money made out of them*.

The real money is being made selling spamming services and tools to people too stupid to realise that merely sending out twelve billion e-mail messages every second does not guarantee you a favourable response -- just like throwing a brick with a piece of paper reading "FANCY A SHAG?" wrapped around it onto a crowded dancefloor is hardly a good way to get yourself laid.

I belong to several Google groups - spam's been coming for some time (and to Yahoo! groups, too).

Yup, it's an irritant (just like our MP) - but I just delete it (Would that I could do the same with the MP - and ALL others of his ilk...).

Stop worrying & just delete the spam & don't follow iffy links...

> just like throwing a brick with a piece of paper reading "FANCY A SHAG?" wrapped around it onto a crowded dancefloor is hardly a good way to get yourself laid.

Voice of experience?

Got myself an hosts file from

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Hardly ever see adverts and spammer sites get dropped in at the bottom, never see them either

Isn't that basically Usenet-via-google, basically???