This article and series of articles is being written because spam (Unsolicited Commercial E-mail) has become so pervasive and seemingly unstoppable. I am writing because I believe that spam can be stopped and nearly eliminated if an active core of people who are recipients of spam decide to fight back against the spam they are receiving. Spam is a form of abuse and to successfully change a pattern of abuse, you have to take measures to challenge it.
In spite of government efforts and recent laws by both the state and federal governments, spam is still being sent in overwhelming volumes. However, we, as citizens of the internet community, can take actions which will disrupt and terminate the spammers and their deluge of unwanted e-mails. As long as the internet community participates in the eradication of spam and efforts to thwart spamming accounts, spammers and spamming will become not only an unacceptable practice but a pain-in-the-neck for spammers to continue.
Even more so, it will become such a nuisance to the spammers to maintain and install spamming accounts, they will seek other avenues for revenue. It will make it unworthy for them to pursue. I believe that even a small effort on the part of e-mail recipients, requiring just five to ten minutes per day, will significantly discourage spammers and their behavior.
In the same way, that vigilante groups emerged in the late 70's and early 80's to protect neighborhoods against crime and what appeared to be a free-for-all by criminals and non-law-abiding citizens, private citizens need to take actions against spammers to deter them from spamming. If private citizens take steps to fight spam by reporting it to the proper authorities, they will be deterring spammers from sending it. And the more people that report spam, the more spam that gets reported and the more the authorities can do to terminate the activities of known spammers.
So, if you want to take a bite out of spam, take action against the spammers. To do that, you will need to complain to the ISP's of the originating spammer OR to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission). Either the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or the FTC is willing to take action against spammers. The ISP can terminate a spammer's account if enough complaints are filed and the FTC has been busy filing lawsuits and in some cases contacting the FBI and other law enforcement bureaus regarding fraudulent spam. So take action against junk mailers and "take a bite out of spam".