By sharing information about unwanted commercial e-mails among a network of collaborating computers, two US software developers are hoping to swiftly spot and spread the word about the junk messages.

Tests of the system have shown that it can successfully spot and stop almost all unwanted e-mails, yet doesn't catch legitimate messages.

Next month the two software developers behind the technology are planning to launch a company that will sell the spam-stopping idea as a service to net providers.

Peer pressure

If you have an e-mail account there's a good chance that you regularly get messages you never asked for, offering get-rich-quick schemes, dubious herbal remedies and even access to porn sites.

Many people use the filtering systems in their e-mail software to catch these messages.

However, these filters often catch many legitimate e-mail messages and can cause as much frustration as they are supposed to cure.

Some net service providers carry out basic filtering on behalf of their customers and stop mail messages reaching people if they are sent from net domains run by junk e-mail marketers.

Many net service providers also gather and share information about notorious spammers in an attempt to stop them setting up new mailing operations only moments after the last one was shut down.

Now New Scientist reports that developers Vipul Ved Prakash and Napster creator Jordan Ritter are creating the Folsom anti-spam tool that tries to stymie junk mail by using a network of collaborating computers.