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Email color-coded system to reduce spamming e-mails

Author

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  • Moustafa, Khaled

    (Founder & Editor of ArabiXiv)

Abstract

Email spam, also known as junk email, is one of the unpleasant and frustrating aspects of modern communication and marketing. It can be especially bothersome when received frequently and when recipients are not interested in the content being received. So-called predatory publishers are particularly active in this regard. Junk emails waste valuable resources including time, energy, bandwidth, and storage space, which could be better utilized. Email filters are not always effective, causing important messages to be mistakenly marked as spam and real spam messages still find their way into the inbox. One potential solution to this problem is to introduce a color-coded system for email addresses. For example, a red email address (example@example.com) could indicate that the recipient does not want to receive any unsolicited messages. A blue address (example@example.com) might indicate that they are open to non-solicited emails but not necessarily marketing or promotional emails. A green email address (example@example.com) could indicate that the owner is open to receive any kind of unsolicited email, including promotional ones. Email providers can set up customizable options to let users select the type of email color/category they opt for at the time of email creation. Currently, email addresses are generally displayed by default as blue links but with a new color-coded system, they will have a new signification (open to receive unsolicited messages but not for marketing or promotional purposes). If a recipient's email address is marked as red and they still receive spam messages, one further approach to reduce spams is to develop and use a "spamback" or "antispam" button in the email features to send the spammer's own messages back to them thousands of times at regular intervals (for e.g., 5, 10, 15, or 30 minutes) to scatter within his own real messages. This could be scheduled to be sent back to spammers if the spammer sends three junk emails and more. To prevent any phishing attempts, the antispam button should send messages from an alias or disposable email address that have nothing to do with the sender’s real email. By doing so, the spammers or potential hackers cannot have confirmation of the actual email. Receiving thousands of messages in response to their own spams may make the spammers think twice before engaging in future spamming activities. Using a color-coded system for email addresses and a dedicated email button for “spamback” or “antispam” could be an efficient way to discourage spammers from spamming.

Suggested Citation

  • Moustafa, Khaled, 2023. "Email color-coded system to reduce spamming e-mails," OSF Preprints 2hvsr, Center for Open Science.
  • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:2hvsr
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/2hvsr
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