New Way To Combat Spam?

Jan. 6 (KGO) -- You've heard of the do not call list, but how about a do not spam list? It's part of a new software program called the Blue Frog and we sent Michael Finney to find out if it really works.

On the surface, the software uses spam to fight spam. Some are calling this latest volley in the war on spam downright nasty. But others say the end justifies the means.

Rada Ivanov opens her inbox and finds almost 50 pieces of spam.

Rada Ivanov: "It is never ending."

All that spam is a part of everyday life for Cindy Qiu.

Cindy Qiu: "I don't even remember what life was like without spam anymore."

Patrick Binarao doesn't get much spam. But he says getting it from porn sites can be embarrassing, especially at work.

We asked all three to test out a product from Blue Security. It's called the Blue Frog. The company acts as a representative for all its users and complains to the spammers and the Internet service providers about the unwanted messages.

The goal is to get the spammer to agree not to spam members on Blue Frog's do not spam list. If the spammers don't respond, Blue Frog will overload the spammer's web sites by repeatedly running queries to it. It's a technique sometimes used by hackers.

Andrew Brandt, senior associate editor, PC World: "The goal of this is to overload those machines so that they can only serve pages very slowly or can't serve pages at all."

Lycos once offered a similar program called "Make Love Not Spam," but pulled the software after it was criticized for being unethical.

Andrew Brandt, senior associate editor, PC World: "I think the jury is out on whether this is ethical. Some people argue that spamming is not ethical. Therefore you can use this method to attack it."

Launched in July, Blue Frog claims its 65,000 users report a 50 percent or greater reduction in the spam they get.

Members are encouraged to forward any spam they get to Blue Frog.

The results of our three testers varied.

Patrick Binarao didn't get much spam to begin with. On a scale of one to four with four mailboxes being the best, Patrick gives Blue Frog four mailboxes.

Patrick Binarao, South San Francisco: "I would get about one to two e-mails a day. Viagara, erectile dysfunction e-mails. Those all went away after I downloaded the software."

Rada Ivanov also saw a great reduction in e-mail, but found the system tedious to use.

Rada Ivanov, San Francisco: "It works very well. However, the process itself of sending the messages to Blue security is a little bit slow. I would try to improve that in some way.

Ivanov gives the system three mailboxes.

Cindy Qiu didn't see any difference in the amount of spam she gets.

Cindy Qiu, Berkeley: "I just didn't think it was worth my time, to be honest. You know spam is just something I have to deal with. I've gotten use to it."

She gives Blue Frog two mailboxes.

That brings the overall average from our three testers to three mailboxes.

Blue Frog is free right now during the current testing period. Users who sign on later will have to purchase the software and pay a monthly fee. But the company says anyone who takes part in the test will continue to get to use it for free.

To download a free copy of the software, visit http://www.bluesecurity.com/

More anti-spam programs some consider controversial: