Pay for email to cut spam
Saturday, August 15th, 2009
ELECTRONIC STAMP
In a bid to thwart spammers, researchers are planning to add a “postage stamp” to emails. The plan of pay-per-email, they say, will help reduce unwanted spasm and the money thus generated will go to charity.
Spam is more abundant than ever, making up more than 90% of all email sent globally. Most is intercepted by anti-spam programs that filter mail by its origin or content. Yahoo! Research’s CentMail is resurrecting an old idea charge every email being sent so as to make spamming uneconomic, New Scientist reported.
What’s more. The cent paid for an accredited “stamp” to appear on each email goes to charity. CentMail’s inventors think it will be more successful than previous approaches to make email coast. They think the cost to users is offset by the good feeling of giving to charity.
The problem with any such “economic” approach is that it costs money or effort for legitimate, Yahoo! Researcher sharad Goel explains. By passing the money onto a charity of the sender’s choice, and showing the donation in a “stamp” at the bottom of every email sent, CentMail aims to make senders feel an altruistic glow to balance that perceived cost.
