In response to a query asked via PM;

I recieved an ebay spoof and when reporting it got the "too many links" error. Should I

• do the parse on the spoof site myself and hope I get it right
• break the real ebay links to get the spoof site reported
• delete the spam without reporting

If your account / reporting history is such that flags are set to allow Quick-Reporting (or if you have set yourself up for Mole-Reporting) .. then simply submit the spam as normal (for these reporting modes) and the source of the spam will be the item searched out and handled.

The "break the real links" scenario sets one up for rules violations (material alteration of spam submittals) and could jeopardize your account. Definitely not recommended.

Parsing a URL yourself isn't that hard (noting Jeff G's Glossary entry Manual Report ) ... The web-based parser entry box includes the single-line entry mode .. simply paste in the URL in question and a parse will be attempted to come up with a reporting address. As stated elsewhere, these results may include an internal SpamCop reporting address (a BL statistic adding /dev/null report or an address generated by agreement with the targetted ISP) .. these cannot be used for your manual report ... so other research would be required.

Ping and/or Trace-route may be available on your system, links in the Forum FAQ include other "research" type sites, (eventually "we" may get the "How to Use ... Research Tools" Forum populated ..??) ... a lot of this type of tracking is found in any number of existing Topic / Discussion within the Forum already ....

And after all of that, one still needs to calculate the odds on reporting to the address found, is it the spammer, is it a "don't care" ISP, is the targetted address found actually correct (IANA is not a reporting address, for instance) ... then decide whether more "reporting" is required, upstreams, Registrars, specific associated parties (per your sample request spoof [at] e-bay.com would be appropriate)

Of course, how you send this Manual Report should be decided upon ... from the account already being spammed or perhaps from a disposable account ...

Basically, as a free-reporting-only account holder, the majority of my spam reporting is done manually (*) and though I don't find this difficult, this is something I wouldn't really recommend to someone that just bought their first computer recently <g>

I'd suspect that what I haven't covered here will be added shortly by others <g>

* I tend to be more 'brutal' than the SpamCop parsing and reporting tool. Most of my spam comes from non-responsive ISPs or proxied/compromised end-user computers that would normally have their IP address already listed in a number of DULs (dial-up-list) ....

Thanks for reminding me of that item on my to-do list.

I am most sensitive to the phishing attempts regarding PayPal and eBay because I use PayPal and eBay is a related business, so I report them religiously to the spoof addresses at paypal.com and ebay.com, as well as reporting them as spam. I save tracking down their "too many" links for when I have nothing better to do.