The mass email software used by most direct marketers comes with automatic filters to eliminate flames. It's a nice idea. Unfortunately, it doesn't help much. For the lists to work, spammers must cooperate with these organizations, and, at this time, there's absolutely no incentive for them to do so. After spending hours fiddling around with filters, testing antispam software, and removing your email address from public sources, you can start to develop a real hatred of the people sending this junk.
Reprisals are tempting, but resist the urge.
Things such as email bombs or denial of service attacks might, in fact, shut down the computer of the person who sent you the spam. But in all likelihood, these techniques will only slow things down at the spammer's ISP, maybe to the point of causing a temporary outage. If you cause problems at an ISP, the owners can complain to your ISP and get you booted off. Additionally, most spammers camouflage their return address, so you might not be retaliating against the right person. Inc. All rights reserved.