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"Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited e-mail message. Nor will I forward chain letters, petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others. This is my contribution to the survival of the online community." |
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whew.com Ferguson v. Friendfinders, Inc. a legal action to stop spam and uphold California law. |
Subject: Interesting idea
Fight Evil
Telemarketing is certainly a plague upon our nation, but San Francisco Chronicle columnist Steve Rubenstein has come up with probably the most elegant solution of our time with three little words: "Hold On, Please." Say these words, put down your phone and go run a marathon or cook up some paella. You know it's time to hang up the phone when you hear that little "beep, beep, beep" tone that indicates the call has been disconnected. The brilliant theory is that if everyone did this, it would waste massive amounts of telemarketing call time, which of course would equate to a massive loss of telemarketing dollars and bring the sales boiler rooms to a grinding halt. I really like this idea. Steve should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, or at least a Pulitzer.
| Likewise with spam. Suppose a spammer sends out 10 million spams, hoping to get 100 customers. Suppose that 1000 people flood their web site, phone number and email address with 10 complaints each. Then the spammer will spend so much time dealing with complaints that they will lose money. Note that spammers always leave a trail back to themselves, so it is always possible to do this. Further, only a few people have to do this a small portion of the time to make spam uneconomical. |
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