MSNBC: FTC mulls bounty system to fight spam

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is considering deputizing the general population to create an anti-spam posse that would share out fines won in spammer convictions and settlements. The measure comes as the Justice Department has failed use the Can-Spam Act or other measures to prosecute spammers, except in cases where the spam charges were added onto fraud or other matters of greater interest to law enforcement officials.

The idea faces lots of resistance from both sides of the spam/anti-spam fence. Anti-spam groups not that the government already knows who the main spammers are, and they're simply not doing much. Getting more people involved with more information will not alter the fact that the government seems to have cold feet in enforcing spam statutes against people perpetrating only spam offences. The mass email industry representatives say that creating anti-spam posse would cause profiteering vigilantes to go after just the emailers they could find, presumably the more legitimate in the spam spectrum.