How It Works

Basic Principles:

The basic principle behind UseBestMail is to stop spam before it is sent. We can't do that for the whole internet at once, but we can do it for all who UseBestMail.

Spam can survive only when it is free, or nearly free to the spammer. Free email makes it economical to quickly send out hundreds of thousands of spam emails in order to obtain a few orders. UseBestMail makes spam uneconomical in two ways. First, the legitimate user of our free software will typically send only a few emails at a time. The UseBestMail system inserts a small delay, starting at only 2/10 of a second between emails. However, as the number of emails sent increases the delay increases as well. It becomes a very lengthy process to send out more than a few hundred emails.

So, what about legitimate mass mailings such as brokerage statements, newsletters, order confirmations, and other legitimate commercial mail? For these purposes UseBestMail provides a non-delayed option. To use this option the mailer must purchase 'stamps' at 5-cents per message. This has three benefits. The recipient knows that the sender thought enough of the message to buy a stamp for it. The sender gets a respected spam-free channel for his email message. And thirdly, the spammers won't pay, so they won't play.

We call this system delay or pay.

How It Works:

UseBestMail maintains a web-server computer that works with software installed by each user. The email sending user's 'client' software communicates with our server to provide stamps for those users who either wait or have purchased stamps. The email recipient's 'client' software communicates with the UseBestMail server to validate emails with stamps. You can tell the client software what do do with non-validated, presumably junk mail. The software can be instructed to either delete it automatically or mark it for easy sorting into the appropriate folder in your email program.

It is important to notice that UseBestMail does not transport, store or censor the mail in any way. It is oblivious to the content of the message. The only changes that are made are: a) A stamp is affixed to the header part of the email (where To: From: Subject: are found), and b) optionally, you can have a small banner message attached to the end of each email to encourage use of UseBestMail by your correspondents. The UseBestMail server saves only the stamp code and the recipient's email address which are then used to validate received messages.