send it back?

I had thought of writing a script that extracts the top level domain name for the links embedded in spam emails. The script would then do a "Who Is" on that domain name and the result would be parsed for the registrants email address. The spam email would then be forwarded to that email address. A nice little add on for Thunderbird perhaps?

The drawback of this is if everyone who is spammed used this method, then a lot of mail servers would likely fall over under the strain. And there is no guarantee that the domain registrant ever uses the email address specified in his/her domain registration. Is it not a good idea in principle though, targeting the sellers of the product being advertised as well as the actual spammers themselves?

It is easy enough to deal with those spam mails that specify product in title.. calais, viagra, casino, anatrim etc, etc. A mail filter will happily delete these from the mail server without even downloading them. But the obfuscation of title is frustrating and harder to deal with.

And yes it is time for ISPs to act. A simple behaviour based rules gateway/firewall could do a lot to cut down spam and botnets.