Full Version: Mailhost and account suspension
Hello,
I have been using and reporting spam with the help of Spamcop for many years now. Recently I decided to donate and become a member.
Now today I discover that my account has been closed and I have been asked to configure my mailhosts. I have done nothing new that I had not been doing previously. I do have other accounts forwarding email to my principle account. So why this suspension and why now?
Incidentally I have never seen my own ISP/mailhost as the culprit or being reported. I always make sure that it is not identified as one before submitting. So this action on Spamcop's part is a little baffling.
I do make it a point to report each spam that I receive. I am a active spam fighter and this I will never cease to do. I am sure that some ISPs and there are several which are notorious for leaks that get regularly complained by me. I am sure I am p-ssing some of them off. I have to wonder if Spamcop has taken this action on my account under pressure from these ISPs?
I cannot get one account to configure and wonder what else I have to do. I have requested for a waiver in this regard.
Lastly I hope this has not been written in the wrong post area.
Thank you.
This is a users' forum. We cannot tell you why your account was closed. You need to email Don service[at]admin.spamcop.net.
We can say with confidence that it is not because of any pressure from those who have received your reports unless, of course, there is something that causes the reports to go to the wrong place, something that mailhosts would fix. Another possibility is that if you use Outlook, recently it was announced that Outlook users have not been able to use email submission.
Since this action coincided with your donation, perhaps you have done nothing wrong. Perhaps it is just part of the process.
Are you having difficulty setting up mailhosts? Don can help you with that also. That may also be why you were asked to set up mailhosts - that one account may have something peculiar about it that is causing problems.
Miss Betsy
We can say with confidence that it is not because of any pressure from those who have received your reports unless, of course, there is something that causes the reports to go to the wrong place, something that mailhosts would fix. Another possibility is that if you use Outlook, recently it was announced that Outlook users have not been able to use email submission.
Since this action coincided with your donation, perhaps you have done nothing wrong. Perhaps it is just part of the process.
Are you having difficulty setting up mailhosts? Don can help you with that also. That may also be why you were asked to set up mailhosts - that one account may have something peculiar about it that is causing problems.
Miss Betsy
QUOTE(BoZz @ May 7 2009, 03:03 AM) 
Now today I discover that my account has been closed and I have been asked to configure my mailhosts.
Sorry, but that sentence doesn't really parse for me. The 'invitation' for running through the MailJost Cnfiguration of your Reporting Accont does not directly correspond with an account being "closed" .... FAQs exist that address/repeat the "rules" for Reporting, which do include violation penalties for breaking them, be it a fine for a fuel/premium account or the loss of Reporting Privileges.
QUOTE
I have done nothing new that I had not been doing previously. I do have other accounts forwarding email to my principle account. So why this suspension and why now?
Incidentally I have never seen my own ISP/mailhost as the culprit or being reported. I always make sure that it is not identified as one before submitting. So this action on Spamcop's part is a little baffling.
Incidentally I have never seen my own ISP/mailhost as the culprit or being reported. I always make sure that it is not identified as one before submitting. So this action on Spamcop's part is a little baffling.
As noted, only one of the Deputies would have access to the exact data .. but the generalities would seem to be that you have in fact reported your own ISP/Host, who then complained about that.
QUOTE
I cannot get one account to configure and wonder what else I have to do. I have requested for a waiver in this regard.
Did you look at the Pinned entry that includes the sub-note/description Read before posting in this Forum section?
QUOTE(Wazoo @ May 7 2009, 06:33 AM)
Sorry, but that sentence doesn't really parse for me. The 'invitation' for running through the MailJost Cnfiguration of your Reporting Accont does not directly correspond with an account being "closed" .... FAQs exist that address/repeat the "rules" for Reporting, which do include violation penalties for breaking them, be it a fine for a fuel/premium account or the loss of Reporting Privileges.
As noted, only one of the Deputies would have access to the exact data .. but the generalities would seem to be that you have in fact reported your own ISP/Host, who then complained about that.
Did you look at the Pinned entry that includes the sub-note/description Read before posting in this Forum section?
It is possible for reporting to be disabled and to be required to setup mailhosts before it will be restored. I had a report for 169.254.1.138 go to: forged-ip[at]x.spamcop.net a while back and decided to send it anyway. In short order, I received the following email:
QUOTE
<link to bad parse>
I am sorry to report that spammer tricks are getting better every day,
which means the spam our users are submitting cannot always be processed
correctly by our system. Unfortunately, that results in SpamCop accepting
forged information supplied by the spammer and causes our parse to accuse
innocent bystanders of being the source of the spam.
You can compensate for that by running our Mailhost configuration utility
so that SpamCop can create a list of the services that handle your email so
that our system will know what servers to trust when you report your
spam. You'll need to configure a host for *all* the providers you receive
mail through.
That would include any webmail hosts, such as Yahoo, HotMail, or gMail, and
forwarding services like Bigfoot or Sneakemail, and any other services that
provide you an email address, such as alumni associations or professional
associations.
You can accomplish that by logging into your SpamCop account at
http://www.spamcop.net and using the Mailhosts tab to tell SpamCop about
*all* of your service providers, forwarding services, and webmail
hosts. You need to register one email address for each
network/host/service that provides you an email address.
Registering your email providers is pretty much the same as reporting spam,
except that you return our test emails to a different address, or
copy/paste them into a different form. The instructions are contained in
every test email we send.
Once you start configuring hosts, you can't report spam again until you get
them all on your list because the Mailhost system completely changes the
way SpamCop looks at your spam.
I'm sorry, but I can't allow clever spammer forgeries to fool our system
into reporting innocent bystanders, so I have had to suspend your reporting
privileges until you get the Mailhost configuration completed. You can
still log into your account even though reporting has been disabled. Just
ignore the error message and click on the Mailhosts tab.
As soon as you're finished, please let me know so that I can reinstate your
account and get you back to reporting spam.
- Don D'Minion - SpamCop Admin -
service[at]admin.spamcop.net
Please retain the current subject line in all correspondence about this issue.
I am sorry to report that spammer tricks are getting better every day,
which means the spam our users are submitting cannot always be processed
correctly by our system. Unfortunately, that results in SpamCop accepting
forged information supplied by the spammer and causes our parse to accuse
innocent bystanders of being the source of the spam.
You can compensate for that by running our Mailhost configuration utility
so that SpamCop can create a list of the services that handle your email so
that our system will know what servers to trust when you report your
spam. You'll need to configure a host for *all* the providers you receive
mail through.
That would include any webmail hosts, such as Yahoo, HotMail, or gMail, and
forwarding services like Bigfoot or Sneakemail, and any other services that
provide you an email address, such as alumni associations or professional
associations.
You can accomplish that by logging into your SpamCop account at
http://www.spamcop.net and using the Mailhosts tab to tell SpamCop about
*all* of your service providers, forwarding services, and webmail
hosts. You need to register one email address for each
network/host/service that provides you an email address.
Registering your email providers is pretty much the same as reporting spam,
except that you return our test emails to a different address, or
copy/paste them into a different form. The instructions are contained in
every test email we send.
Once you start configuring hosts, you can't report spam again until you get
them all on your list because the Mailhost system completely changes the
way SpamCop looks at your spam.
I'm sorry, but I can't allow clever spammer forgeries to fool our system
into reporting innocent bystanders, so I have had to suspend your reporting
privileges until you get the Mailhost configuration completed. You can
still log into your account even though reporting has been disabled. Just
ignore the error message and click on the Mailhosts tab.
As soon as you're finished, please let me know so that I can reinstate your
account and get you back to reporting spam.
- Don D'Minion - SpamCop Admin -
service[at]admin.spamcop.net
Please retain the current subject line in all correspondence about this issue.
QUOTE(BoZz @ May 7 2009, 04:03 AM)
Hello,
I have been using and reporting spam with the help of Spamcop for many years now. Recently I decided to donate and become a member.
Now today I discover that my account has been closed and I have been asked to configure my mailhosts. I have done nothing new that I had not been doing previously. I do have other accounts forwarding email to my principle account. So why this suspension and why now?
Incidentally I have never seen my own ISP/mailhost as the culprit or being reported. I always make sure that it is not identified as one before submitting. So this action on Spamcop's part is a little baffling.
I do make it a point to report each spam that I receive. I am a active spam fighter and this I will never cease to do. I am sure that some ISPs and there are several which are notorious for leaks that get regularly complained by me. I am sure I am p-ssing some of them off. I have to wonder if Spamcop has taken this action on my account under pressure from these ISPs?
I cannot get one account to configure and wonder what else I have to do. I have requested for a waiver in this regard.
Lastly I hope this has not been written in the wrong post area.
Thank you.
What happened is that because of the lack of mailhosts for your account, the parser accepted a forged header and found the IP in the forged header as the injection point. The IP may have been an invalid/unassigned/reserved IP as Steven mentioned below or it may have been a legit IP and the recipient of the report wrote to us and pointed out the forged header.
Don't take this as a personal insult -- it is just standard boilerplate to tell you that you need to do mailhosts for your account which helps everyone who receives SpamCop reports as it makes them more accurate. We would like *everyone* to be using MailHosts.
Once you do your MailHosts just write to service <at> admin.spamcop.net to get your account unlocked.
Ellen
SpamCop
Not to worry. BoZz has already configured his Mailhosts and been reinstated.
I even showed him a copy of the email that got my attention.
I will be happy to do that for anybody I suspend for Mailhosts if they ask.
Just for the record, the vast majority of the suspensions I issue are because SpamCop got fooled by a forgery. Usually because the spammer forged an IANA reserved IP. On rare occasions, I suspend a user because he is reporting his own service provider.
I often send users this boilerplate if they ask for more information beyond the suspension notice I send:
IPs in that range are held in reserve by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for internal (local) network use only. Those IPs are not routeable. They can't (impossible) be used to exchange data across the Internet. Reports about those IPs come to me because when the SpamCop parse thinks one of those addresses is the source of the spam, I know for a fact that SpamCop has been fooled by a Spammer forgery, and I have to take action.
Our defense against being fooled by forgeries is the Mailhost system, which lists the user's service providers so that the parse can accurately pinpoint the true source of the spam because it knows who the good guys are when it parses the headers of your spam. Sooner or later, registering Mailhosts will become standard for all users.
- Don D'Minion - SpamCop Admin -
.
I even showed him a copy of the email that got my attention.
I will be happy to do that for anybody I suspend for Mailhosts if they ask.
Just for the record, the vast majority of the suspensions I issue are because SpamCop got fooled by a forgery. Usually because the spammer forged an IANA reserved IP. On rare occasions, I suspend a user because he is reporting his own service provider.
I often send users this boilerplate if they ask for more information beyond the suspension notice I send:
IPs in that range are held in reserve by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for internal (local) network use only. Those IPs are not routeable. They can't (impossible) be used to exchange data across the Internet. Reports about those IPs come to me because when the SpamCop parse thinks one of those addresses is the source of the spam, I know for a fact that SpamCop has been fooled by a Spammer forgery, and I have to take action.
Our defense against being fooled by forgeries is the Mailhost system, which lists the user's service providers so that the parse can accurately pinpoint the true source of the spam because it knows who the good guys are when it parses the headers of your spam. Sooner or later, registering Mailhosts will become standard for all users.
- Don D'Minion - SpamCop Admin -
.
IOW (in other words), if you haven't mailhost configured your spamcop reporting account, it would be a good idea to do so.
Miss Betsy
Miss Betsy
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