Now, I know that sending lots of e-mails to various Internet service providers may not have the desired effect. But if some magnanimous programmers created such a program and made it public (and free, hence the magnanimous part), and if hundreds or thousands of fed-up recipients of spam started using this program, and if the abuse in-boxes of service providers started filling up, perhaps they might actually take some action. In fact, such programs could actually help the Internet service providers. If they were to receive a large number of e-mails listing the relevant offending information, they could automate their investigation process, since it could be in a standard and easily parsed format. Then, they could easily see whether any of their users were sending large numbers of unsolicited messages. (I know they should be monitoring their users to determine this, but they usually don't.) Skeptics among you will say the spammers will just bounce to another network, but with an automated spam-blaster process, they would have almost no time before they are rediscovered.

This may be a radical approach, but that's what the times call for. I am tired of spending hours every week cleaning out my various e-mail in-boxes, and so should you be. Estimates are that over 50 percent of all e-mail traffic is spam. Many smaller companies can't afford the expense of a spam filtering service. So this is how we can all strike back. Who will join my quest?

Jack Gold is an analyst at J. Gold Associates in Northboro, Mass. At the risk of being spammed, he can be reached at jack.gold@jgoldassociates.com.