> Inbound traffic: 53% automated_
Most of what knocks isn't a person.
Franked holds mail from strangers until they pay a small refundable deposit. One message costs a person a few dollars. Fifty thousand cost a campaign a fortune.
The numbers
The internet stopped being mostly people
Network-wide measurements put bots closer to one request in three. Every serious estimate points the same way. Why they differ.
The economics
Sending costs nothing, so software sends by the million. A refundable price is invisible to one person writing to one person, and ruinous to a campaign writing to fifty thousand.
The field guide
Every door strangers can knock on
Inbound channels were built for a world where the thing on the other end was a person. These pages cover what changed, where it hurts, and what actually works.
- 01 / THE PROBLEMThe bot majorityHow automated traffic overtook people, and why the measurements disagree.
- 02 / THE PROBLEMAgent swarms and the inboxWhy AI agents turned outreach from one-to-one into one-to-everyone.
- 03 / THE PROBLEMThe unprotected channel mapNine inbound channels and how exposed each one is.
- 04 / WHERE IT HITSContact formsThe softest target on the web.
- 05 / WHERE IT HITSSmall businessesOpen doors, nobody watching them, and a checklist.
- 06 / WHERE IT HITSGovernment and public commentWhen fake participation shapes real policy.
- 07 / WHAT WORKSCAPTCHA is overWhy the puzzle stopped telling people from machines.
- 08 / WHAT WORKSFive ways to tellPuzzles, behaviour, attestation, personhood and price.
- 09 / THE PROBLEMThe cost of doing nothingFraud, flooded queues, poisoned data and lost trust.
Beyond email
Every inbound channel, priced at the door
Contact forms, support queues and job applications next, with AI agents paying inside the request over HTTP 402. For APIs and content, Franked works alongside Cloudflare's Monetization Gateway and Amazon CloudFront's x402 integration.