News for Cox Cable users - missing spam reports

[darkmoebius]

For anyone on Cox Cable that has been having problems in the last week or so receiving spam Reports from SpamCop, I just talked to a tech and he said that Cox just installed spam filter software on their servers sometime last week. More than just a coincidence?

(Of the 42 emails I sent in today, only 10 reports made it back to me.)

There is a chance that if you submit multiple individual spam emails at one time(like I do), then the returning wave of spam reports are being filtered out as actual spam. To fix this(I hope) , you have to send a new email with the SpamCop report as an attatchment (must be attatched, not forwarded) to ThisIsNotSpam at Cox.net.

You will receive a confirmation stating-

From: Auto-reply from ThisIsNotSpam at cox.net

Thank you for your submission. We have received your message which was identified as spam. As part of our on-going efforts to eliminate spam, the contents of the message will be analyzed to understand why it was identified as spam. Thank you for sharing your concerns.

Hopefully, this will be the answer to my woes.

[jstar]

Since Cox Communications installed their spam filter, I am only receiving about 5% of the spam submissions I send to spam Cop. During this test phase, my email setting is for all determined spam from the spam filter to be listed as spam in the subject line. No spam is being blocked. Why am I not receiving the spam Cop submissions for the spam email that I send to spam Cop.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

JEff

[turetzsr]

Hi, JEff,

Since Cox Communications installed their spam filter, I am only receiving about 5% of the spam submissions I send to spam Cop.  During this test phase, my email setting is for all determined spam from the spam filter to be listed as spam in the subject line. No spam is being blocked. Why am I not receiving the spam Cop submissions for the spam email that I send to spam Cop.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

JEff

...There are apparently many possible points of failure. See Pinned: FAQ Entry: Emailed spam Submissions Disappearing? and the discussion in System slow - 2nd update.

[jstar]

Thanks Steve T...will chech out your links.

[turetzsr]

Thanks Steve T...will chech out your links.

...My pleasure. I hope they help.

[darkmoebius]

Hi turetzsr,

I seem to be having a mixture of both problems in the FAQ - submissions not reaching Spamcop at all and reports being available to finish on the website but not reaching me.

Only one of the 50 emails I submitted today appeared on the webpage for processing.

Unfortunately, I am using Outlook, so ccutting and pasting is near impossible.

[turetzsr]

Hi  turetzsr,

I seem to be having a mixture of both problems in the FAQ - submissions not reaching Spamcop at all and reports being available to finish on the website but not reaching me.

Only one of the 50 emails I submitted today appeared on the webpage for processing.

Unfortunately, I am using Outlook, so ccutting and pasting is near impossible.

Hi, darkmoebius (I LOVE that id!)!

...It's Steve (or Steve T), not turetzsr -- turetzsr is just my user id.

...For the copy-and-paste process for Outlook (not Outlook Express, right?), please see glauber's clarification of my steps for using the web submission form when your mail client is Outlook. But instead of pasting the information into an e-mail, paste in into the top part of the web-based two-part report form (URL http://www.spamcop.net/?code=16CharID, replacing the "16CharID" with your 16-character reporting id). For the bottom part of that form, I use an Outlook View that has a Preview pane, right-click, click "View Source" and copy the HTML into the SpamCop web page.

...HTH.

[darkmoebius]

Thank you for the pointer, Steve (I'm a quick learner, eh?)

It's going to be great to have the web submission as backup from now on.

Believe it or not, since 10:00 am this morning, I am getting nearly every report I submit AND the SpamCop webpage "Report Now" is fully working for me. Before, only one out of 20 or more emails would be available for processing off the website.

I wish I could clearly state what caused this sudden upsurge in reports, but who knows?

I did submit a SPamCop report to Cox Cable's ThisIsNotSpam at Cox.net anti-spam review team yesterday, so maybe they have made adjustments in the filtering to my account (outgoing and incoming).

The real kicker is that I never enabled Cox's anti-spam filtering in the first place and when I check the settings for my account it shows anti-spam is disabled. Nonetheless, since Cox has zero experience with anti-spam filtering and this is the first week of their rollout, I'd bet they've got a few things messed up.

Happy Days are here again! The week of no reporting seems to have doubled the amount of spam I'm getting. It will be nice to give 'em hell for a while.

[trisha506]

This place is SICKENING!

Dark, I have Cox.net also and did exactly what you said to. I sent them my spam report as an attachment, and VOILA! I got about 86 reports back from Spamcop!

My freakin joy of course was shortlived. Because replies from Spamcop ended as quickly as they started. So at this point I am getting immediately autoresponse from Cox, and CRAP from spamcop.

I don't have the hours in a day to have to copy every freakin email into their internal system.

I'm so hating Spamcop. What a bad joke this has turned out to be. A bad bad bad bad joke.

I'm starting to have more respect for the losers who spam me than I am for this organization.

[Wazoo]

Please see http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1176 .. perhaps something to do with your current situation?

[turetzsr]

This place is SICKENING!

Dark, I have Cox.net also and did exactly what you said to.  I sent them my spam report as an attachment, and VOILA!  I got about 86 reports back from Spamcop!

My freakin joy of course was shortlived.  Because replies from Spamcop ended as quickly as they started.  So at this point I am getting immediately autoresponse from Cox, and CRAP from spamcop.

I don't have the hours in a day to have to copy every freakin email into their internal system.

I'm so hating Spamcop.  What a bad joke this has turned out to be.  A bad bad bad bad joke.

I'm starting to have more respect for the losers who spam me than I am for this organization.

Hi, Trisha,

...It's much less than it could be but much more than a lot of other services, IMHO.

...Please don't feel you have to report every darm spam you get. No one will flame you for doing whatever you feel you have the time to do.

[trisha506]

Please see http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1176 .. perhaps something to do with your current situation?

Here's hoping.

[darkmoebius]

Hi Trisha,

It looks like we both have the exact same problem. I emailed Cox's anti-spam review and for a few hours everything I submitted was being processed by SpamCop, then just as before things stopped dead. Nothing at all was getting through.

But, your and my experiences seem to prove that the problem is not on SpamCop's end, it' is solely a problem with Cox Cable and their new anti-spam filter. The very fact that none of the reports I submit show up on my SpamCop Webpage means that nothing is making to them. Our spam reports are never making it out of Cox.net.

To prove this, I submitted a ton of reports via the Webmail of the ISP that hosts my website, APlus.net, and every single email got returned with a SpamCop processing report.

So, I think your(and my) frustration has clearly been misdirected. There is absolutely nothing that the SpamCop team can do about this, we have to take it up with Cox. It sucks, but dem's da' breaks.

I flirted with simply deleting spam and not reproting it all last week and my daily load more than doubled to 120-150 a day. When I started using SpamCop's webpage reporting to circumvent the Cox roadblock, spam dropped off to only 60 per day. So, for me it pays to spend the time because I would easily be getting hundreds a day within a few weeks. That would be a major hassle to sort through looking for legitmate emails that my PopFile baysian Filter missed(~98% accurate).

I am going to waste a large block of time tomorrow to demand some action from Cox, please do the same. It's time to go postal on them :angry:

[Wazoo]

Tis was PM'd to me, but it does seem like the issue may be better addressed within this old Topic that seems to have died out before any successful conclusions were reached. I don't see anything of a personal nature that should upset anyone for this extra exposure.

Wazoo -

I notice that you are listed as a moderator, which leads me to believe that you are officially associated with Spamcop.

No money changes hands. I have no authority, no special powers that get me into the secret rooms, don't get invited to the meetings, haven't even been offered any gratuities (did I mention that I jost lost a 30Gig drive and have been trying to reconstruct the partition tables on a 60Gig drive [that was on the same IDE cable] for over a wwwk now?) .... so not sure how "official" that makes me. When these Forums were started, I chose not to volunteer as a Moderator as I didn't plan on spending much time here. However, noted that few of the newsgroup regulars made the transisiton, and JeffG was getting pretty overloaded doing everything by himself ... so I accepted JT's request to help out.

If that is not the case, then perhaps you can help me to find someone who is. I will continue with the assumption that you are and tell you the problem.

The problems you've been having seem to be pretty much addressed over the past many months. There are only two other addresses to contact the folks that can look at anything on the SpamCop servers, both mentioned many times within these Forums and in the FAQs ... which address to use depends on which side of the house that you are actually using. Deputies <at> admin.spamcop.net for the reporting side, support <at> spamcop.net for JT's side for e-mail accounts.

I am a PAYING member of Spamcop, which causes me to feel that I should be receiving the service for which I have paid. 95% of what I forward to Spamcop is never acknowledged.

But you don't actually say what type of account and how you are using it. That you are forwarding spam suggests that you are not using the flat-rate e-mail account, or you're not using it in a way that would work around the forwarding issue. If you are using the SpamCop e-mail account type, then I'd suggest looking through some of the FAQs and Pinned items dealing with how to set it up so that SpamCop POPs your Cox account, then you could handle/process your spam from within your SpamCop account.

My internet service provider (Cox) continues to tell me that the problem is not with them and that they are not holding up my emails.

Unfortunately, this is the point that this Topic seemed to die out, even though it was conjectured that Cox was in fact filtering outgoing and incoming e-mail.

I need Spamcop to somehow verify that they are not receiving my forwarded emails. If that is the case, then I can bring it back to Cox and "force" then to do something about it.

I am happy to set up a trial with Spamcop, forwarding emails at certain times of the day, etc., in order to see where the problem lies.

Not sure this will actually help .. what would be needed is a snippet of logs files from Cox to show that their servers actually made contact and made a successful transaction with the SpamCop servers. This Topic suggests that this connection isn't being made, so there'd be nothing for a SpamCop Admin type to look at. Getting the snippet from someone at Cox seems to again be where this Topic died out.

But something has to be done. I'm tired of having to be the one to try to solve a problem for which I have neither the time nor expertise. Again, I have paid Spamcop for a service that I am not receiving. I am extremely frustrated by the whole thing. In the meantime, I continue to receive spam which ends up in a black hole. That certainly does not serve any purpose for me. What I DON'T want to hear is that "the problem is not with Spamcop." I want a situation where we actually test to see what is happening. Everyone is telling me that the problem is not with them. Meanwhile, I know one thing for sure. The problem is not with me; yet I am the only one being victimized.

Help please.

Trisha

OK, here's a plan ... the next time you forward a spam submittal, add in a CC: address to another one of your accounts somewhere, say HotMail, Yahoo, etc. .... Check that other account to see if it ever shows up. This will confirm whether or not Cox is actually filtering your outgoing. If the e-mail does show up at this other account, the headers will contain the date/time data showing just when the Cox server got around to sending it, and thus also gice someone at SpamCop a much more explicit spot to take a look at their logs. This will hopefully solve the "Send" side of the issue. The Reporting and Confimation e-mails take us to another area of research, so let's work on "phase one" first .. is Cox actually sending your e-mail ....

[Wazoo]

Think I need some help here ...????

please see http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1095

Wazoo -

Unfortunately that did not help as you led me to a broken link and a bunch of old discussion. How about now doing the work or telling me someone who will.

Thanks

Does anyone else see these last two posts? Anyone see where I didn't answer the "who else" or even try to suggest some other items to try? The mood I'm in right now doesn't allow me to respond to this last PM right now, especially if there's something else strange going on at trisha506's end. I clicked on the link she quoted and it brought me right here ....????

[Wazoo]

This is ridiculous ..... not quite a cartoony, but ......

please see http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1095

Unfortunately that did not help as you led me to a broken link and a bunch of old discussion. How about now doing the work or telling me someone who will.

I used the link you quoted. Took me right to where it should have. Posted yet another reply there.

That's the old discussion. Very unhelpful. Can you either read about my problem again and respond to it the way I have asked or send me to someone who will. I've paid for a service I am not receiving. Being an attorney I at least know about contractual rights. I'm giving Spamcop the opportunity to rectify the problem. I don't intend to be any further part of an experiment nor do I intend to do any more of the legwork.

Thank you

and my response, just so the record is clear;

I'll tell you what. If you can't be bothered to read what I've already provided today, you can take the next step and go ahead and threaten to sue me. Had you read the stuff I've already provided, you'd know enough about the law to see that I have no standing .... that said, you don't need to bother me again.

[Ellen]

Jumping in here in the thread -- Cox *is* spam filtering both inbound and outbound mail. And outbound mail that fails their spam filter test is silently discarded. There have been other users who have found that their emailing of spam to SC is not arriving. There is nothing that we/SC can do about it and when I spoke to Cox they told me that there was no way for the user to "opt-out" of the outbound filtering. Admittedly it is several weeks since I spoke to them but nothing leads me to believe that there have been any changes in their policy. The other users with the problem found that whether their email spam transmissions arrived at SC or were silently discarded was very hit or miss.

[Wazoo]

trisha506 has been PMing me and apparently has yet to read past the first couple of posts in this Topic, so can only presume that she won't read your last either Ellen. Hard to say at this point, shaking as I am at the prospects of becoming a defendant once again .. geeze ....

[Wazoo]

What more can be said? This is simply too rich, I must share .....

That's the old discussion.  Very unhelpful.  Can you either read about my problem again and respond to it the way I have asked or send me to someone who will.  I've paid for a service I am not receiving.  Being an attorney I at least know about contractual rights.  I'm giving Spamcop the opportunity to rectify the problem.  I don't intend to be any further part of an experiment nor do I intend to do any more of the legwork.

Thank you

I'll tell you what. If you can't be bothered to read what I've already provided today, you can take the next step and go ahead and threaten to sue me. Had you read the stuff I've already provided, you'd know enough about the law to see that I have no standing .... that said, you don't need to bother me again.

Trust me I won't. I'll take it to someone who knows what they're doing there, not some flunky who calls himself a moderator. And incidentally, flunky, you obviously no nothing about the law. Nobody would bother suing some random "moderator." It kind of doesn't work that way.

You don't need to bother me again either. I'll just use your emails as part of my proof of derilection of duty by likely unpaid internet users with meaningless titles. See ya now "moderator."

[Wazoo]

Just for the record, I have asked several other folks to take a look at this Topic to make absolutely sure that there really wasn't the remote possibility that only I could see the recent posts .... confirmation exists that they can see them just fine, so the only possible issue seems to be something broken in trisha506's scroll function ... yet another item in the world that SpamCop doesn't control ....

[Merlyn]

Looks to me lile everything is posted here in plain sight. trisha506 surely has a reading disability or something. Ellen's answer which seems like she has not read stated the obvious problem. It's definately a COX problem and this has also been discussed in many other newsgroups and forums other than Spamcop. Cox seems to be trying to fix their problem but this is happening at their customers expense.

Wazoo, you have been very patient and extremely helpful, you should just leave her be. She has no action she can take except maybe finding a "reading" course.

If she is using the PM function in this forum I wonder if the block user function would stop those?

Now thinking about it maybe she has used that and that is why she is not seeing the other posts?

In any event, besides her needing some therapy and a "reading is fundamental" class I think you have done your best and you should just disregard any correspondance. If she continues to pester you then I am sure someone else could ban her along with a nice letter to her and her provider. (Ellen, are ya reading this?)

[DavidT]

Cox *is* spam filtering both inbound and outbound mail. And outbound mail that fails their spam filter test is silently discarded.

I'm a Cox user and I ran a test earlier today, forwarding five items from my Held Mail folder from my computer to another unfiltered address. I was using the "Forward the messages without editing (redirect, or 'bounce')" method of my Pegasus software.

None of the five items made it to the unfiltered destination. I also forwarded normal stuff from my INBOX using the same method and it all arrived, so I can confirm that they are agressively filtering the outbound mail sent by home users.

DT

[dbiel]

Wazoo: In reply to your question about being able to read and understand this post, I will quote your suggestion on what to try next

OK, here's a plan ... the next time you forward a spam submittal, add in a CC: address to another one of your accounts somewhere, say HotMail, Yahoo, etc. .... Check that other account to see if it ever shows up. This will confirm whether or not Cox is actually filtering your outgoing. If the e-mail does show up at this other account, the headers will contain the date/time data showing just when the Cox server got around to sending it, and thus also gice someone at SpamCop a much more explicit spot to take a look at their logs. This will hopefully solve the "Send" side of the issue. The Reporting and Confimation e-mails take us to another area of research, so let's work on "phase one" first .. is Cox actually sending your e-mail ....

Seems mighty clear to me!!!!!

It appears that she is a hopeless soul.

By the way, what is all this talk about service paid for and not received all about anyway (no need to respond)

$30.00/year for email service

minimial fee for fuel for paid reporting service or free if you wish

How much tech support do you think $30.00 should buy anyway?

Wazoo, thanks again for your on going hard work making the forum a better place.

[Wazoo]

Thanks folks for checking in on this. There is an option to make things visible/invisible, will assume for a 'real' moderated board, so I had to make sure that this 'flag' hadn't gotten toggled for some reason and the posts really weren't visible. Obviously, I haven't played with this option, but I'm not at 100% trust with my main system here, either <g>

[Miss Betsy]

Well, I would like to see her law degree and even, maybe her current Bar Association standing before I would even think about shaking, IIWY!

It is too bad that some people are so quick to attack. I hope she enjoys reading her spam.

Miss Betsy