Posted by Virus Bulletin on Sep 20, 2004
US Federal Trade Commission says the US government must be generous with its rewards if it decides to encourage 'bounty hunters' to track down email spammers
In a report to Congress, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has said that the US government must be prepared to be generous with its rewards if it decides to encourage 'bounty hunters' to track down email spammers.
According to the FTC, rewards of up to $250,000 will be required to encourage people to snitch on friends or acquaintances who send out bulk unsolicited email. The FTC also said that the cash will have to come from the federal budget, rather than settlements collected from spammers.
But the FTC is not convinced of the effectiveness of such a bounty scheme: "The commission does not believe that the vast majority of consumers who are now forwarding 300,000 pieces of spam daily to the FTC spam database are likely to be a good source for such information," the FTC said in a report to Congress.
Posted on 20 September 2004 by Virus Bulletin
