Thanks! Could I explain my logic on how it should be reasonably easy to find out which companies are paying the comment spammers? I would like to bounce my ideas off some others to see if they make sense, but don’t want to be accused of spamming while explaining.

I am curious about some of the really big company names I have seen in comment spams. It might be logical to assume that these large companies are paying the spammer. But I am wondering, do they include the names of popular companies in their spam to help associate their own (or their client’s) web site with those large companies, or are they trying to mask who is paying them by including the names of the large companies?

It would stand to reason, if you isolate a spammer, and see in six or eight of his posts the same company (or companies), you could start isolating who is paying him.

Does that make sense?

My approach would be to track down the companies that are providing the spammers their money, and start making it know who the spammers are being paid by. Then start boycotting their products in a very public and vocal way.

Judy,
Interesting points. The bottom line is that spam works – or people wouldn’t be paid to do it. And no pay, means no spammers. So it is about removing the economic incentives.

Yet, how can we really do that? Seems to me more productive, more possible, to take down spammers themselves – even though that’s a huge proposition in its own right.

I don’t want to touch the Freedom of Speech issue with regard to spam (there have been arguments that spam is a form of free speech).

But it’s interesting to me because freedom of speech was intended to give everyone a voice: something critical in a democracy but by giving everyone a voice, groups that make many of us cringe: neo nazis, for example, have the right to express their views. The point is, prohibit one group and where does it end.

I have no love for spam, believe me. I use Askimet and I still get stuff that slips through. Just reading some of the subject lines make me want to take a hot shower with lots of soap.

But it seems to me that the only real solution with teeth is to begin charging for online commerce because it would finally remove the economic incentive that fuels spam to begin with.

I’m not saying not to pursue the grassroots efforts folks are mentioning, but it seems to me that as long as the Internet is free, spam will be present.

And, I think something as powerful and amazing as the Internet should remain free. Spam (not malicious viruses and such) is an annoying but relatively small price to pay.

What little spam then still trickles through is then mercilessly caught by Askimet, which hardly (if ever) catches legitimate comments.