A war has erupted between the spammers and a private company known as Bluesecurity. Bluesecurity develops a free software known as Bluefrog that aims to get rid of spammers by counter-attacking them. Conventional approach to tackling spam is to flag it and delete it. Bluefrog takes a more proactive approach. Once a message is marked as Spam the software will automatically post opt-out requests on the sites advertised by spam using contact information available on the site. Thus if someone sends a large number of spams about a pirticular product that website will be flooded with opt-out request. Thus Bluefrog spams the spammers! Some people consider this as immoral and illegal. Bluesecurity’s arguement is that, “Active Deterrence is an ethical solution to spam as it allows the members of the Blue Community to complain about spam in a safe and automated manner. The number of complaints posted by the Community is exactly equal to the number of spam messages received. Merchants and spammers are warned in advance and can easily avoid receiving complaints by complying with the Registry”. To me it is an apt way to teaching the spammers a lesson. Spammers can’t be convinced by sweet words and persuation. Blue Frog provides a way to fight back.

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