The European Union E-Privacy directive of 2002, the US CAN-SPAM act of 2003 and other anti-spam laws allow legal action against spammers. Only official authorities can initiate action (although there are proposals to set up a bounty system in the US), but enforceability of these statutes is a problem, as investigations and prosecutions are prohibitively expensive, and both law enforcement and prosecutors have other pressing priorities contending for finite resources. Financial investigative techniques (following the money trail) that can be deployed against terrorists, drug dealers and money launderers are overkill for spammers, and would probably raise civil liberties issues.

There is an option that could dramatically streamline anti-spam enforcement, however. Spammers have to find a way to get paid, and payment is usually tendered using a credit card. Visa and Mastercard both have systems by which a temporary, one-time use credit card number can be generated. This service is used mostly to assuage the fears of online shoppers, but also provides a solution.

Visa and Mastercard could offer an interface that would allow FTC investigators and their European counterparts to generate “poisoned” credit card numbers. Any merchant account that attempts a transaction using such a number would be immediately frozen and its balance forfeited. Visa and Mastercard’s costs could be defrayed by giving them a portion of the confiscated proceeds.

Of course, proper judicial oversight would have to be provided, but this is a relatively simple way to nip the spam problem in the bud, by hitting spammers where it hurts most – in the pocketbook.