Matt points to this article about suing spammers in small claims court. The article is interesting not only because it explains a little but of the how, but more importantly, a little bit of the why. In a word: economics.
There is one vulnerability that spammers have in common. Ultimately, someone, somewhere, wants to sell you a product or service and they have to collect money from you to do it. This is like kryptonite to them for two reasons. First, even if they sell from overseas, they are looking to do business with you here in America, and that means that somewhere along the way. they have in effect agreed to be subject to the jurisdiction of American courts - specifically, your courts in your hometown, if they're trying to sell something to you. Second, because they are trying to collect money here in America, there may be a way to trap that money before it leaves the country, by finding and placing liens on merchant credit card accounts and the like.
Once spammers start to understand that a large number of us are willing to threaten their ill-gotten gains, they must conclude that it no longer makes economic sense to spam indiscriminately or fraudulently. Just a handful of anti-spam vigilantes can cost spammers enough to lay waste to the entire enterprise.
For that reason, I have been an advocate of suing spammers and telemarketers who violate the law. Spammmers have now taken the unwise step of stealing the e-mail addresses of bloggers to use as "Reply-to" tags. Other e-mail users might not realize that this e-mail theft is a concerted campaign, but the bloggers have been quick to share their stories and figure the scheme out.
What would happen if we all took action, right now, against one or a dozen specific offenders simultaneously? What if a dozen of us, a hundred of us, a thousand of us, each got a judgment for a few hundred dollars against a spammer?
Have you ever felt the crunch of crushing a cockroach underfoot?
I think the time is now. If we use our skills to track these spammers back to their nests, we can root them out once and for all.
Rise up, my friends. Rise up.