How to Stop Spam

I get spam, lots of spam, and so do you. I’ve never bought anything from a spammer, and I never will. So why do they keep sending me email?

Two reasons:
1) It’s free
2) I might buy something.

Maybe email should NOT be free? Perhaps there should be a small anti-spam charge, which would be insignificant to non-spammers. Perhaps a fraction of a penny? Any charge would change the economics of spamming and be significant to spammers! I’m not sure I endorse this idea – I need to think about more, but it’s a possibility. And to all you doltish naysayers, I’m old enough to remember when the mere thought of doing anything commercial with the Internet was heresy. Things change . . . .

Let’s address the “I might buy something” part. Unlikely, very unlikely. I don’t buy things from people that annoy me! But many many people do – eventually.

I was in Kuta Beach, Bali, which is sort of like Cancun for Australians. Beautiful place, full of young drunken Aussies, and thousands of annoying locals trying to sell things in the most annoying ways – real life brick and mortar spammers. I quickly learned the Bahasa Indonesian term for “village chieftain” and would say “NO, villain chieftain” which would briefly stun them while I walked around them and away.

I was walking down the street with 3 Danish women and a couple of Englishmen, and we were being followed by two young teenagers relentlessly trying to sell us “shells.” The village chieftain stunt had gotten laughs, but hadn’t shaken then, so after 20 or so minutes of being hounded I politely explained that they really were wasting their time on us. We simply were not going to buy and since they seemed like nice kids I was offering them some friendly business advice. An hour+ later they were still following us. Then the unimaginable happened. The Danish women decided to buy shells from them! After being heckled for an hour and a half, they rewarded and reinforced their obnoxious behavior!

Same thing happens all time with email spammers. Someone, somewhere, eventually buys something and the numbers add up. These people, the ones buying from the spammers, are a major part of the problem! They are encouraging and rewarding spamming.

Stop it! It’s unethical to buy from spammers.