Hi folks. I'm trying to understand this and I'm really hoping that someone here can help me out or at least tell me how I might solve the current problem.

Here goes.

I use Spamcop's webmail. I have been reporting spam through this webmail system by toggling the message in question and clicking on the "Report as Spam" link for a long time now (I think I've been using this system for almost three years). Recently (ie: today), I got a notice of a message not delivered to someone I tried to email (not through the webmail but from a message I sent on my local computer. I use Eudora), telling me that my mail wasn't delivered and my domain name was rejected because it was on the blacklist at Spamcop.

No, this message isn't about that. I believe my host is working on correcting that problem.

My confusion came when my host told me that:



I understand that I might have erroneously reported spam when it wasn't ... This does happen sometimes as I get a LOT of spam (the reason I bought Spamcop's webmail service in the first place). I also read about many people on this forum doing that by accident. But what seems to be happening here is that because my host is forwarding on all the email it receives to my Spamcop webmail that I'm using as a "filter" of sorts, Spamcop now seems to think that my HOST is responsible for sending the spam when it didn't originate from them at all.

Since this is a very recent problem and since I've been using this system for a while now with no such problems in the past, I'm confused as to why it's happening now. Is there anyone that can help me understand what's happening here so that i) all mail delivered to my Spamcop.net account isn't automatically sent to my Held Mail folder - which is what's happening now - and ii) so that my Host will forgive me for getting him (completely by accident) on the Spamcop.net blacklist.

Any thoughts? Or help? I'd really appreciate some advice here so that, if I've done something wrong, I don't make the same mistake twice - and so that the problem is fixed.

Thanking you hugely in advance!

All the best,

--Jodi

Sounds like a mailhosts problem Jodi. You have them set up? Can you post a tracking URL for a report misidentifying cesmail as a spam source? There could have been changes to host servers not yet picked up by the mailhost configuration, no doubt all sorts of possibilities but that's all I could think of straight up.

Hi Farelf. First off, thanks for responding. I appreciate it. I'm going to ask my host to get me a tracking URL and will put it here when I have it. But I'm a little confused by your terminology? When you say "mailhost" - do you mean, my host's mail server or Spamcop's?

All the best,

--Jodi

mailhosts is the system that allows you to make spamcop aware of which servers handle your mail. This way it trusts headers listing those servers, and moves on to the next header when parsing.

Log in to your spamcop account, and click on the Mailhosts tab and tell us what you see there.

Hi Telarin. I'm logging on through http://webmail.spamcop.net and I don't have a tab that mentions anything about "mailhosts". I'm assuming you mean at the top where "Empty Trash", "Compose", etc., are located? There's no "mailhosts" tab there that I can see (and I don't think I'm THAT blind. ).

Unless it's under "Options"? If so, I can't seem to see it there either.

When I look at the POP configuration, the mailhost is mailbox.samurai.com - which is where the email being sent to my Spamcop.net webmail account is being sent from.

All the best,

--Jodi

I'm not sure how to get there from the webmail account as I don't have one. Can you log into your reporting account at spamcop.net using the same credentials?

Unless his/her ISP contactd Don, who then removed her Reporting Account priviledges, yes .... his/her webmail login data should also be usable as the login data at http://www.spamcop.net .. which is where he/she can go through the MailHost Configuration of a Reporting Account .. which has its own Forum Section here .... some FAQ data, some tutorials, lots of posts/discussions .... suggest starting with the Pinned items in that Forum section.

Hi guys. I am a "she", just in case you wanted to get out of that "his/her" confusion.

I've updated my webmail system, logging into my reporting function to add the mailhost of samurai.com and have had confirmation that it seems to have "taken". (got the confirmation emails and plugged all the required information into the forms, etc.)

Will this solve my problem now? Or is there anything else I need to do?

Has my host contacted you guys?

--Jodi

That should solve your problem, however, you may want to manually submit a couple of emails and make sure the parser thinks they should go to where you think they should go (not your ISP hopefully).

Manually submit a couple of emails to report as spam, you mean? Or something else? I still seem to be able to "Report as Spam" from my webmail...

--Jodi

Heh! .. I'd actually edited that last post .. realized I'd made an assumption, remembering that assumptions had got me into trouble before, so went back and changed those 'she' to 'he/she' ... just in case ...

You need to make sure that the parsing is correct before hitting the Submit button.

You need to monitor future parses to notice any changes that may screw up future parse results.
(You're supposed to be checking all parse results, but ... the Quick-Report feature is where the lack of oversite can bite folks. Best suggestion was to run one or two through the full-report process, verify the results, then Quick-Report the rest.)

The volunteer status of most of us here would say that 'we' wouldn't know. If your reports are still going though and you haven't received an e-mail from SpamCop.net Admin or Deputies about "bad reporting" .. it would appear that your host has not gone there (yet)

I appreciate the thought.


Ok. That was just Greek to me. What do you mean by "parsing"?


Ok. I'll check with him then. Thanks.

--Jodi

How about taking a look at How to use the SpamCop Reporting Service and see where that takes us ...

Ah. I see. The parser page. Ok. I just submitted a new spam. I'll see what the answering email from Spamcop has to say about whether or not it went through properly...

Thanks for your patience.

--Jodi



Ok. The parse page is here:
http://www.spamcop.net/sc?id=z1115099457z6...bb78465548a42cz

I don't know if anyone outside of my account can see that, but it looked ok to me in the sense that it didn't *seem* to be blaming samurai.com for the spam...

Does that look right to you?

--Jodi

Hi again Jodi, dawn has sprung in my hemisphere once more (I'm always grateful when that happens). Glad others have been helping you while I slumbered.

[massive edit - you worked it all out - will look at your tracker]

I certainly am too!


If you see anything out of place, please do let me know. Thanks!

All the best,

--Jodi

Jodi - that parse looks fine - identifies a source in the Philippines (one "l", two "p"s, always gives me trouble). I can see why the parser struggled a tad before you configured mailhosts! I've never seen such a chain. Then I don't get out much

You can give cesmail the good news and remember Wazoo's warning about relying too much on the system, even now. Need to check it keeps working in future. Configurations change, SC "usually" catches up with them but not straight away all the time.

Anyhow - well done!

Phew. Yeah. I get a lot of odd spam. But I've had my email address up on a popular website I created (it's for songwriters, in case you're interested. It's called The Muse's Muse. I won't post the url here though in case that's a bad thing to be doing but you can find it easy enough if you want to, I'm sure) for over 10 years (the site was created in 1995) and until I completely redo the site (which I will actually be starting to do in the next month or so), it's unlikely it would be possible for me to get rid of all the instances where my email address appears. Not that it would matter anyway as my email address is likely all over every spam list ever CREATED by now.

But since this email address is so very tied in with a lot of the things I do, I don't want to just abandon it and start again. <sigh>

A pain in the you-know-where. Which is why I rely on Spamcop.net to keep me SANE.

Anyway, I'm glad that it looks like things are working again. Phew! I didn't realize how much I relied on this service until today. It's a little embarassing.

Thanks again for all your help (and Wazoo and Telarin too!)

All the best,

--Jodi