If you can't beat the spammers, pick their pockets. Sounds like a fantasy you might have had while wading through the usual flood of spam in the inbox, right? Well, how would you like to be able to charge spammers for the privilege of emailing you? Apparently, you'll be able to and sooner than you think, says the Australian creator of what might be the first anti-spam service of its kind.
"Spammers aren't going to be sending many spams to you if you charge them 50 cents [each]," said Bernard Palmer, the creator of CashRamSpam, which CNET reports he planed to introduce Thursday. "A spam would cost them $2 million." Under Palmer's plan, it would cost a CashRamSpam user $36 by credit card to sign up for the service, after which he or she could set a contact fee anywhere from a few pennies to as high as they think a spammer is determined enough to pay.
Right now, CashRamSpam is more "a proof of concept" than "a robust anti-spam solution," according to CNET. And those who want to put CashRamSpam customers on their spam lists have to become CashRamSpam users themselves.
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