Re: [Asrg] Re: Spam, why is it still a problem?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephane Bortzmeyer" <bortzmeyer@nic.fr>
To: "Gadi Evron" <ge@linuxbox.org>
Cc: <asrg@ietf.org>; "Craig Cockburn" <craig@siliconglen.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 11:35 AM
Subject: [Asrg] Re: Spam, why is it still a problem?

> On Tue, Jan 17, 2006 at 12:15:18PM +0200,
>  Gadi Evron <ge@linuxbox.org> wrote
>  a message of 34 lines which said:
>
> > Accepting them?
>
> For the record, I never said that we should accept murder or rape or
> spam. The fact that I subscribed to this mailing list clearly shows
> that I do want to fight spam.
>
> > How do we explain to the END USER why there is still spam?
>
> Your explanations are good. I myself often use the comparison with
> burglary. We cannot "solve" burglary. We can use techniques to "bring
> it down to manageable levels" (I lock my door, like many people). We
> can prosecute. We can look for social solutions to the social problem
> of burglary (and, as it is the case with spam, this will trigger a
> huge controversy, because it is a political problem). But we cannot
> solve it like we solve a math problem.
>
I saw a fascinating program on the evolution of  bank robberies.  I had not
noticed but there has been a marked decline in robbers blowing up safes with
gelignite.  The banks had introduced better safes.  The robbers targetted the
distribution of wages in cash.  The banks encouraged payment by bank transfer.
The robbers targetted places where cash was still held, post offices, building
societies, off licenses.  These premises introduced better cash storage and
limited access.  The robbers are now phishing.  And so on and so forth.

We will always be looking for a new solution to a new technique and the
'robbers' will probably always be more fleet of foot than us.  But I believe we
still must keep working on it.

The caveat, as has already been pointed out, is to ensure that the cure is not
worse than the disease; if it is a matter of economics, we need to cause the
spammers to expend $1000 to earn $200 as opposed to us expending $1000 to
prevent the loss of $200.

Tom Petch
<snip>

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