Posted: 22nd Mar, 2004 By: MarkJ
Global ISP AOL has opened up a new front on SPAM (junk e-mail) by blocking access to the websites advertised in such messages. Sadly the method itself isn't without flaw:
The policy, which began earlier this year, is designed to remove the rationale for sending spam messages by making it impossible for AOL members to access spamvertised sites.
Many in the anti-spam debate have advocated going after sites advertised by spam as well as the people who send it out, but the approach is not without its problems.
AOL says it chooses what sites to block based on complaints from its members. But what if spammers mentions sites in their email they don't like (e.g. Spamhaus), simply to get them blocked?Hopefully, since the method isn't completely automated, the difficulty mentioned in the last paragraph will not become a great issue. More @
The Register.