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Spamvertised info


dentaku65

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Hi,

I'm the webmaster of short url redirection site, and a couple of months ago my provider sent an e-mail to me about "spam complain" of my site as spamvertised, reported by Spamcop Team.

I've implemented on my site these security checks in order to create short urls as clean/secure as possible:

  • Internal DB filtering for out-of-policy and/or spam links, hosts, domains, keys (incremented manually)
  • No short urls on short url sites (no short urls chain)
  • No IP address URLs allowed
  • No malicious extensions allowed (cut off link portion containing .exe, .bat, .sh, .pif etcetera extensions)
  • No domains allowed listed on spamhaus, surbl and uribl DNS name resolution (A entry)
  • Honeypot trap
  • .htaccess trap

Yeah, a lot of work! :-)

I'm writing here because I have some doubts about the definition and assignation of "Spamversited"; my provider reported to me that this kind of spam is "Spamvertised websites, websites that are mentioned in spam messages, are not allowed to be hosted on our servers.", thus my site, due to the nature of his service, can be marked as spamversited even, with all evidence, has not resposability at all or a fleeting indirect responsability.

If I understood well this kind of spam is regarding the content (in my case was a content of a e-mail with an url generated from my site) and, to my point of view, this seems to be pretty volatile to decide to mark a site as "only" by a link in a content of an e-mail and, not even an end link; to me this do not proves anything and penalizes my job beyond measure.

I'm so surprised that Spamcop consider spam a link inside a content of e-mail; what happens if someone send thousands of spam mail with www.spamcop.net as a content link inside the e-mails? Spamcop will consider itself as a spamvertised? I don't understand...

If Spamcop have some SURBL service or similar solution (like Spamhaus) I'll happy to implement it in my site as additional security check.

Kind regards,

den

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Basically, if your web URL appears in an email reported as spam, SpamCop will send a notice about it to your web host.

That's all it is, a notice.

We don't ask for any action, nor do we threaten any action. It is just a notice.

When you are informed about the report, all you have to do is delete the URL and forget about it.

If you get the link in the SpamCop report, you can use it to come to our web site and flag the URL as deleted so that SpamCop won't send any more reports about it.

- Don D'Minion - SpamCop Admin -

- Service[at]Admin.SpamCop.net -

.

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Basically, if your web URL appears in an email reported as spam, SpamCop will send a notice about it to your web host.

That's all it is, a notice.

We don't ask for any action, nor do we threaten any action. It is just a notice.

When you are informed about the report, all you have to do is delete the URL and forget about it.

If you get the link in the SpamCop report, you can use it to come to our web site and flag the URL as deleted so that SpamCop won't send any more reports about it.

- Don D'Minion - SpamCop Admin -

- Service[at]Admin.SpamCop.net -

.

Hi Don,

thanks for your answer; but I'm still a little bit confused; the point in this case is: why my provider is involved? Why Spamcop do not notify directly to me? My domain have postmaster, info and abuse accounts as usual; I think that writing to the owner of the service should be the first step and the more correct way to interact. Then, in case of no answer I imagine will be necessary to escalate to the service provider but not before.

I'm asking this because the e-mail received from my provider about this subject was very far from gentle, even after I deleted the incriminated url and explained the situation (silly situation btw, just an entry in my db).

Anyway I do not really understand the "method" or "criteria" by which Spamcop define a "spamvertised" url in such vast scenario like "url inside e-mail content"; of course I understand very well the fight against spam and I support it, but the risk is to generate too many "false positives"

Kind regards,

den

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Hi, den,

<snip>

but I'm still a little bit confused; the point in this case is: why my provider is involved?

...That's because your provider "owns" the network and that's the most reliable point to which to report.
Why Spamcop do not notify directly to me?
...SpamCop (the software, not the people :) <g>) doesn't know you but it can look up your provider's e-mail address. If *you* are the owner, you will need to register as the owner. Don (and perhaps others here) can provide more information on how to do that so that SpamCop treats you as the person to whom to report spamvertizing that mentions your service.
<snip>

I'm asking this because the e-mail received from my provider about this subject was very far from gentle, even after I deleted the incriminated url and explained the situation (silly situation btw, just an entry in my db).

...Well, that is a matter between you and your provider. You may wish to consider switching your business to a provider that is more technically savvy about what control one can exert over spammers' use of your service than yours seems to be!
<snip>

Anyway I do not really understand the "method" or "criteria" by which Spamcop define a "spamvertised" url

<snip>

...Don defined it quite precisely: "[a] web URL [that] appears in an email reported as spam...." Please remember that this is a definition that is being applied by the SpamCop program, not by a human. :) <g>
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Hi Steve,

thank you for your clarifications.

...

If *you* are the owner, you will need to register as the owner. Don (and perhaps others here) can provide more information on how to do that so that SpamCop treats you as the person to whom to report spamvertizing that mentions your service....

Oh, this is interesting; how do I proceed with it?

...

...Don defined it quite precisely: "[a] web URL [that] appears in an email reported as spam...." Please remember that this is a definition that is being applied by the SpamCop program, not by a human. :) <g>

So, this means that works based just by a report? A link inside an e-mail can be anything, is SpamCop (the program not the people . :) <g>) :-) takes for granted these kind of reports? Just to know..

Regards,

den

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<snip>

Oh, this is interesting; how do I proceed with it?

...Sorry, that is something I do not know. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be by in due course with helpful suggestions. Alternatively, you could ask Don by writing to Service[at]Admin.SpamCop.net.
So, this means that works based just by a report? A link inside an e-mail can be anything, is SpamCop (the program not the people . :) <g>) :-) takes for granted these kind of reports? Just to know..
...Yes, exactly. Please bear in mind that, as Don indicated 86270[/snapback], "We don't ask for any action, nor do we threaten any action. It is just a notice." Why does SpamCop bother to send a notice? Well, in some cases, the spamvertized site is how the spam content is conveyed; in some cases it is under the control of the (or a) spammer. In some (undoubtedly very rare) cases, the admin may wish to actually try to take action against the spammer who has included the spamvertized link. There may also be other reasons of which I'm unaware.
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