"Our software pulls bandwidth from known spammers from our users' Internet connection, and raises the bills on spammers," says Rob Sandusky, technology manager of SpamPires. "If enough of our users are online, then we can even max out the spammers, meaning they have no bandwidth left to send anything out."

SpamPires says its software ensures it will not slow down a computer's operating speed, nor will it crash a spammer's Web site or initiate denial of service attacks. Released in early January, the software is more effective than traditional spam filters, says SpamPires, because it targets spam at its very source, rather than merely deleting spam emails.