Very odd. Options

[knightsaber]

Greetings,

I've been using Spamcop webmail for over two years now and I regularly send mail to a friend of mine with it. Today I started getting this and I thought I might bring it to someone's attention.

-
The following message to <shiva51[at]mchsi.com> was undeliverable.
The reason for the problem:
5.1.0 - Unknown address error 550-'216.154.195.49 blocked by blacklist.sequoia.ops.asp.att.net.\nBlocked for abuse. Please contact the administrator of your ISP or sending mail service.'
-

My Spamcop mail has been blocked for abuse? I haven't been a mail admin for many years but this is kind of strange. I tried a few more mails to him and they all bounce back with the same message.

[swingspacers]

What makes you think that is odd? This would not be the first time that an ISP "retaliates" against SpamCop in some way. Usually it's just angry comments, but in some cases the ISPs try to restrict SpamCop users from sending mail to or receiving mail from the ISP's users. In your case it looks like they blocklisted c60.cesmail.net, the machine that sends out all the mail submitted via webmail.

Workaround: Send your mail to this person through another server, for example, your ISP's SMTP server.

[knightsaber]

What makes you think that is odd? This would not be the first time that an ISP "retaliates" against SpamCop in some way. Usually it's just angry comments, but in some cases the ISPs try to restrict SpamCop users from sending mail to or receiving mail from the ISP's users. In your case it looks like they blocklisted c60.cesmail.net, the machine that sends out all the mail submitted via webmail.

Workaround: Send your mail to this person through another server, for example, your ISP's SMTP server.

I think it's odd because in two years of them being off and on the SpamCop blacklist, they suddenly out of the blue decide to do it.

As for a workaround, I'm just using my ISP's mail against my better judgement.

[Jeff G.]

You could also ask your friend to ask Mediacom to whitelist c60.cesmail.net [216.154.195.49].

[Wazoo]

Gadz ..... hour and a half on the phone with 'my local' Mediacom 'support' folks. Bottom line, AT&T still handles the backbone and e-mail for Mediacom. Doing a bit of Google, there's a lot of folks that want to know how/who to contact about this sequoia BL ... here's the deal ... I've got a guy (tier1 Mediacom staffer) that says he wants the headers of that rejection e-mail (would prevent more questions if the whole e-mail was submitted) ... he says his only contact method will be to open up a ticket with his AT&T contact point and wait to see what they come back with. So the question is: do you want to persue this?

There is nothing on the Mediacom site referencing filtering, so there does not appear to be any user functionality on setting/selecting/changing any filter options. I was going to challenge part of the storyline here, as the PM notifications come from the same server ... then remembered that I've got those now going to a GMail account which is then POP'd.

[Jeff G.]

he wants the headers of that rejection e-mail

OK, please see http://www.spamcop.net/sc?id=z770350715z96...;action=display

I also PM'd Wazoo the unmunged version.

This post has been edited by Jeff G.: Jun 1 2005, 08:07 PM

[Wazoo]

Here's what I sent .... Jeff G.'s sample provided for the data needed (assumedly the IP of the cesmail server involved) ....
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I am a Mediacom user. Original issue was raised by a Mediacom user,
who was trying to send an e-mail to another Mediacom user.

I am filling the slot of Admin on the support Forum for the
spam parsing and reporting tool set found at
http://www.spamcop.net
http://forum.spamcop.net/forums
One of the items available through SpamCop is a
filtered e-mail account which includes a web-mail
connection. Based on the original user's question
and the follow-up e-mail attempt by a co-Moderator,
it is apparent that the IP address or the cesmail server
has made it into the Subject line BL.

Google shows a number of queries made by other folks
in trying to find the contact point for this BL, none of
which has been answered. Conversation last night
with Tier1 Mediacom staff resulted in the following;

AT&T still handles the backbone and e-mail for Mediacom

There is no "direct" contact between a Mediacom user
and this AT&T level.

Mediacom Tier1 staff requested a copy of the bounce /
rejection e-mail, such that they could forward this with
an "open a ticket" request to get some kind of a response
from AT&T on the BL situation.

Anticipating that the "easy" answer may be something
along the lines of "spam spew source" ... the 'heavy'
question would then go to "what spam?" Abuse of
a web-mail account is not the norm of the general spammer.
As an anti-spam entity, the users that spent money on
a SpamCop filtered e-mail account wouldn't normally
be seen as the spamming type. There are penalties
in place for folks found to be abusing the system.

SpamCop also provides a DNSBL, but noting that
as in almost all other BLs, there is a contact point,
there is documentation, there is even a dispute resolution
methodology offered. There seems to be none of this
available on the blacklist.sequoia.ops.asp.att.net item,
most definitely nothing that I could point a Mediacom user
to that might explain why AT&T was even involved in
his e-mail delivery issues.

All that said, provided below is a sample rejection
notification sent by a SpamCop support Forum
Moderator to the user that raised the initial query.
What is specifically requested is the requirements
needed to be listed in the AT&T BL, how that
data can be accessed if there is a spamming issue
by a SpamCop e-mail user, and of course, the
de-listing requirements.
-=-=-=-=-
(Jeff G's rejection notification included here)

[knightsaber]

I'll be interesting to see their answer to that, but I find it more likely they won't answer at all. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Jeff G.]

Perhaps AT&T's abuse desk personnel have perversely decided that the way to stop SpamCop reports from reaching them is to blacklist SpamCop servers.

[Wazoo]

Perhaps AT&T's abuse desk personnel have perversely decided that the way to stop SpamCop reports from reaching them is to blacklist SpamCop servers.

Believe me, it was a long and complicated conversation (lots of time on hold <g>) ..
Yes, I'm a customer ..
No, this isn't about my account ..
Explaining who SpamCop is ....
No, not a problem with my e-mail account .. well, wait a minute, yes it 'could' be ...
An MCHSI customer was trying to e-mail anoither MCHSI customer .. but using the SpamCop Filtered E-Mail web-mail tool to do it .... (no, it's none of my business as to why ...)
I'm looking all over Mediacom's site for a pointer that explains that AT&T is (still) involved in handling MCHSI traffic and not finding it ...
Looking for any data about filtering of e-mail and not finding it ....
Oh BTW; is AT&T actually still doing this or is this also a part of the "sold to ComCast" stuff ????
on and on ... much of the above repeated numerous times ....

[Jeff G.]

Wazoo, seeing as you're a Mediacom customer, can we simplify by showing that I can't email your Mediacom address from Webmail? Thanks!

[Jeff G.]

Wazoo, seeing as you're a Mediacom customer, can we simplify by showing that I can't email your Mediacom address from Webmail?  Thanks!

That has now been shown via an undisclosed method. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Wazoo]

Jeff G.'s additional data provided along with this bit of a follow-up;

To make things more personal, the following is offered to indicate an
attempted e-mail from a co-Moderator to myself ... further research
via the www.att.net pages only shows the use of BrightMail as a
filtering agent, again, nothing about the existence and use of the
blacklist.sequoia.ops.asp.att.net .... anyway, further data points
offered;
(added Jeff G.'s notification e-mail)

Note that the timing was such that I was actually dealing with a Microsoft "customer satisfaction survey" request dealing with the latest responses from the clueless droids about the termination of one of my HotMail accounts "for spamming" ... what a day <g>

Only topped by the following bit of exchange:

From the "Customer Service Satisfaction Survey Request" e-mail

Should you have any questions or concerns about the nature, content or distribution of this survey please send them directly to Microsoft Customer Care at MSNST[at]microsoft.com.

Response to that included address:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

     MSNST[at]microsoft.com

Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 10): 550 5.1.1 User unknown

[Farelf]

Only topped by the following bit of exchange:
...

C'mon Wazoo, you've a way to go yet ;-)
See http://www.vtc.net/~cdgoldin/micro$of...dbyehotmail.htm
Sorry, OT, but of interest.

[Wazoo]

How embarrassing ... this blacklist.sequoia.ops.asp.att.net is not "new" stuff ... DavidT just dropped a note to me pointing to a Topic over a year old "here" that mentioned this BL being involved with e-mail "to me" ... geeze ... old age is showing ...
http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=511

That said, three e-mails sent, one auto-ack, nothing more to this point ..

As far as Microsoft/HotMail goes ... how's this one from last evening;

Thank you for contacting Microsoft. Your e-mail will be handled by a Customer Service Representative within approximately 24 hours.Please note that the e-mail address you have contacted, "abuse[at]microsoft.com" will be retired on April 29, 2005. In the future, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/contactus to contact Microsoft.

Noting of course that nothing on that page has a contact point worth a hoot as far as the specific issue is concerned.

[Jeff G.]

As far as Microsoft/HotMail goes ... how's this one from last evening;

Thank you for contacting Microsoft. Your e-mail will be handled by a Customer Service Representative within approximately 24 hours.Please note that the e-mail address you have contacted, "abuse[at]microsoft.com" will be retired on April 29, 2005. In the future, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/contactus to contact Microsoft.

Duly noted by reference on http://www.rfc-ignorant.org/tools/lookup.p...soft.com&full=1

[Farelf]

... geeze ... old age is showing ...

Not to worry Wazoo - they're just not paying you enough. None of us seemed to notice at the time the recurrence aspect of that German/Sober/Zombie thing and those were less than a year apart ( then and later)
Maybe we should all hit the search facility a little more frequently.

This post has been edited by Farelf: Jun 3 2005, 01:16 PM

[Wazoo]

Guess I was thinking ahead (for all the wrong reasons) when placing that bit of search up on the top of the page, huh? <g>

[knightsaber]

More joy from ATT:

The following message to <********@insightbb.com> was undeliverable.
The reason for the problem:
5.1.0 - Unknown address error 550-'216.154.195.49 blocked by blacklist.sequoia.ops.asp.att.net.\nBlocked for abuse. Please contact the administrator of your ISP or sending mail service.'

Basically every 2 out of 3 mails I try to send is blocked by this blacklist now. I'm going to have to use my ISP mail until they pull their head out of....well you know.

[Wazoo]

insightbb.com was yet another one of the "after @Home" companies that picked up their 'local' users .... obviously also still sending a check to AT&T for the use of their backbone and apparently e-mail also ....