They mask their e-mail addresses, install filters, create white lists of approved senders and blacklists of bulk mailers. An entire software sector has sprung up to try to defeat spammers.
Yet inboxes are still bursting with unsolicited offers of prescription-free Viagra, get-rich schemes and pornography.
Many experts agree that stopping spam requires a radical technical solution at the heart of the Internet.
So an international organization best known for creating the Internet's plumbing has decided to explore fundamental changes in its architecture that would effect a fix. This would ultimately require a global consensus -- and software updates for everybody.
The Anti-Spam Research Group will hold its first physical meeting in San Francisco Thursday. Members have already been discussing the problem over e-mail with such gusto that some participants complain they're getting more messages on anti-spam than from spammers.
The group was convened last month by the Internet Engineering Task Force, which in 1982 defined the standard known as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or SMTP, that still process all e-mail today.
"SMTP was developed some 20 years ago for a totally different type of Internet, one that was very open and trusting," said Paul Judge, the research group's chairman and director of research at the e-mail security firm CipherTrust Inc. "Today, the Internet is not those two things."
Jupiter Research estimates the average e-mail account received 2,200 spam messages last year. The anti-spam firm Brightmail estimates nearly 40 percent of all Internet e-mail is unwanted, an increase of 8 percent from 2001.
Dozens of companies -- Brightmail, Mirapoint, Postini and others -- try to block spam before it reaches users' inboxes. Products from Microsoft and Apple try to filter out unwanted spam after it has arrived.
At least 26 states have passed laws attempting to control spam but there is no federal regulation beyond anti-fraud rules from the Federal Trade Commission. Still, many users find themselves continually exasperated, hitting the "delete" button time and time again.
Suggestions posed in the research group's mailing list range from replacing SMTP to adjusting other Internet standards in order to stymie unsolicited mass-mailings.
Some experts advocate changes that would demand the identity of every mailer or an alternative mail system altogether that involves trusted, verified senders. Some have gone as far as to suggest requiring paid postage.
The ideal solution would stop spam as close to the source as possible to limit its impact on the network, Judge said.
The research group's work could take years, though Judge is hopeful a consensus can be reached sooner. Problem is, there isn't even consensus on exactly what the problem is.
"One person's spam is another person's newsletter," said Jeff Brainard, marketing manager at the e-mail provider Mirapoint, a group member. "They have to find a way to allow the user to make a determination and not use a Gestapo-like, rigid approach."
The group must also consider how any proposed solutions affect other aspects of the e-mail ecosystem, said David Berlind, executive editor at the tech news site ZDNET and founder of JamSpam, an ad hoc group seeking solutions.
Berlind has firsthand experience.
In October, he tried to send a story to an editor but it never made it because an Internet service provider had blacklisted his mail server. Another person had used that server to send spam.
Berlind sees JamSpam working with the research group to identify problems that might emerge from proposed solutions, such as how his e-mail disappeared when an ISP tried to thwart spam by creating a blacklist.
Judge promises a structured conversation about the pros and cons of each approach before attempting to reach a consensus. After that, any recommendation would be submitted to standards-setting bodies.
So don't expect spam to disappear tomorrow.
"Changing the protocols is a very difficult task," said Brad Templeton, chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and an expert on e-mail issues. "Some people have an unrealistic expectation about how easy that would be to change."
Initially, the research group won't be addressing legal issues, ranging from free speech to laws that could deter spammers. Ultimately, however, any solution would have to be both legal and technical, just like today's efforts to stop hackers, Judge said.
"If you look at the problem of hacking and attacks on computer networks, there are technological solutions such as intrusion detection and firewalls," he said. "But there are also a set of laws in place to prosecute persons who choose to circumvent those solutions. It's the union of these two approaches that give us a real solution."
But like halting hackers, stopping spam may be a never-ending game. As soon as a fix is identified, spammers, like crackers, find a weak spot.
So if there's a new mail system, will spammers try to get around that?
"Absolutely: Spammers have an economic incentive to get their message in front of people," said Jeff Schneider, chief technology officer at Brightmail. "That's what the whole game of spam is really about."
Copyright 2003. Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
