System, method and article of manufacture for preventing the proliferation of unwanted electronic messages

A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for providing an application program with an electronic message to preclude unwanted electronic messages from being sent on a network, comprising:

• a code segment for initializing at least one application program after an electronic message is selected by a user, wherein the application program is received with the electronic message on a network;
• and
• a code segment for executing the application program after the initialization thereof, the execution of the application program including:
• displaying text included with the electronic message,
• depicting indicia,
• communicating an identifier of the electronic message on the network upon the selection of the indicia by the user for precluding unwanted electronic messages from being sent on the network;
• a code segment for tracking an amount of the identifiers that were sent by a plurality of users who received the electronic message;
• and
• a code segment for precluding unwanted electronic messages from being sent on the network upon a predetermined amount of the identifiers being tracked.