While there certainly is some visceral pleasure from pulling out or chopping down an illegal sign, I've been thinking about more systematic ways to combat street spammers.

Has anyone ever posted online notices about street spammers? There are many sites that post reviews of businesses and collect ratings from consumers. These include Better Business Bureau, Superpages, and measuredup.com. I'm sure there are many more.

It seems to me that an organized effort to publicize spam offenders will negatively impact their business, more than taking down a sign.

We might even consider creating our website that would list offenders by category or geography. That would give us the greatest control over what is said about the offender. This info. could be included on this site or in a new one. Such a site could be created and hosted for less than $15 a month. If it had a neutral name such as businessrater.com, then it would probably generate good search referral.

Any thoughts?

Hi:

Interesting idea. There would, however, be a liability issue. Let's say that a company spammed and stopped spamming, but was still reported on the site.

Another issue is finding out who the spammers are. For example, the "singles" signs are hidden behind offshore companies and websites. We went to quite a bit of effort to expose them - this information is available to Code Enforcement officers. Another example is the "we buy houses" scams - these often track back to realtors or appraisers. But the site could be liable if a mistake were made establishing the owner.

This relates to the "end benefactor rule", which exists in Dallas, but not metro Denver. That is where the company/individual who benefits from an illegal sign is responsible, no matter who placed the sign.

A third issue is getting people to find the site, and then use the site. The ultimate goal would be to decrease business volume for street spammers. I'm not sure if the site would accomplish that.

DenverShark

Another good strategy is to flood the street spammers with junk phone calls.I use a TracFone, it is untraceable. I contact numerous street spammers and direct them to call the particular spammer I am concentrating on. (I tell the callers that my friend is interested in that product or service). Soon the targetted spammer's phone is ringing off the hook, "Do you need to lose weight? Need to erase bad credit? Need to sell your home? Want to work at home?
It drives them nuts. They have to answer the phone, or at least take messages.
Then I call & tell them that the calls will stop after they remove their signs & stop spamming.
I encourage CAUSS members t to post tel nos of street spammers