Our reverse dns is valid. A whois check will show two (not one, two) valid email addresses. If the spam reports could be sent to these addresses we would be able to at least determine why our mailserver is being black listed.
Or at least if we can have some other method to access the spam reports. There must be some way that we can automatically validate that
One the ONE occassion a spamcop employee responded to our emails we found the report came from a subscriber who had opted in to a genuine opt-in newsletter (I assume they forgot they'd subscribed). Subsequent reports we can't find out about so far.
Just to forestall a couple of responses I might get:
# Change IP addresses and go where the owner will reliably forward reports. Not possible for a range of reasons, many of which should be obvious.
# The fault is my mailserver configuration. I seriously doubt it. We have valid reverse dns, SPF records on sending domains, good security, careful logging which would detect any compromise of server, etc, etc.
# The fault is the emails we send which are actually spam. I don't think so, because the few mailing lists we run are all legitimate and well-run opt in news services. A small number of our customers send personal email via the server and some send highly commercially valuable emails such as invoices to their customers. However, if spamcop knows better, unfortunately we have yet to find out several days after we began asking.
# Its not convenient for spamcop to look up whois records or provide any alternative (timely) way for server administrators to find out why their server is black listed. This may be true, but its even more inconvenient for us to have a large number of invoices to genuine customers bounce because someone forgot they subscribed to a newsletter. Spamcop is imposing a substantial commercial cost on us and I don't think it is unreasonable for us to ask that spamcop provide a working method to find out why this has happened and to take action.
# You're only blacklisted for 24 hours, just be a bit patient. Patient? You take the calls from my clients explaining why their important emails are not getting through. You feel free to explain to them that probably they'll get through tomorrow (maybe).
# Spamcop doesn't block emails. Correct, it doesn't. However, in practice a large number of email providers block all email from any IP address listed by spamcop. To say spamcop is not responsible for the failure of this email to get through may be theoretically correct but not practially correct.
# You're a spammer, you must be if you don't like spamcop. OK I acknowledge its not easy to tell the difference between someone who intentionally sends unsolicited email. I would hope the professional manner of our email contacts, that we have clear reverse dns and valid contact details, that our IP address does not change, that we deal with highly reputable companies, that we answer phone calls (not that spamcop would know that), and many other reasons show that we are a legitimate business which is not breaking the rules.
