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[Resolved] Not getting auto-responses!


jasmith4

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I submit spams pretty much every day, and I've done so for years. Usually it takes seconds to get an auto-response, the Email with the link to the page that has the Report spam button.

But for the past month or more I haven't gotten anything. I log in to www.spamcop.net, check my recent reports, and I find none. I've even deleted all my mail hosts and re-created them: I started with "comcast.net", I got two checkboxes, one of them already checked, I checked the other one, I submitted both, and I got two "Success" Emails. This was in the past week or so.

But i still never get anything when I submit spams. I've also confirmed that my "submit" Email address hasn't changed, and I'm not getting bouncebacks from Comcast or Spamcop.

What's going on? Is your service still up and working?

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Hi jasmith, sorry to hear of your problems. This topic belongs in the "Reporting help" section I think,

Wazoo's diagnostic might be worth looking at - http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/topic/1848-emailed-spam-submissions-disappearing/

It seems to me that the incidence of providers silently filtering submissions (on the grounds that they contain spam ... duh!) has been steadily increasing. A quick and painless test would be to try submitting a non-spam email. Just be sure to CANCEL the report if it does get through. If it doesn't, you need further help. If it does get through, you probably have an issue with Comcast,

Will move the topic to that other section shortly.

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Well, I Emailed myself two short messages with no images and non-blank message bodies, and I forwarded both to my "submit" Email address. I got responses in Email, I kept open the Report spam page and refreshed it, and I saw the two reports come up. I wasn't sure whether the Report Now link on the page would give me a chance to cancel, so I used the auto-response Emails' links and cancelled from the page to which each one led. Now on the page I see two recent reports cancelled.

So it seems everything is normal from your simple test. But how can every real spam i report not be going through? I guess I'll wait for a real spam and go through this whole exercise again: checking both the Report spam page and my Email for any response. I'll let you know...

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Thanks, that's progress. When providers filter spam (filtering both inwards and outwards) there will be a lag in recognition - thus they let in more than they let out. The shorter the interval between receiving it and reporting it, the better the chance of getting it through, one imagines. When I used to get lots of spam (and with the sort of filtering my provider was doing) I found they weren't quite so smart in picking up multiple spam submissions - that is one submission with multiple spam attached. Alternatively making the FIRST attachment non-spam seemed to work (if it was an old e-mail the parser wouldn't process reports for it so don't even need to cancel). An unnecessary botheration of electrons, but they make us do such things, our lame and limited service providers.

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I deliberately turn off all of Comcast's spam filtering, and I even set up a general Email-filtering rules that specifically lets in all Emails from spamcop[at]devnull.spamcop.net. I actually *want* spam, because I report it all to not only SpamCop but many other anti-spam and -phishing addresses. And I've always forwarded one spam at a time, and always as an attachment. I've briefly been an administrator of an Exchange server with a Barracuda hooked up to it...

Anyway, it didn't take long: I got a real spam. I reported it, pulled up the Report spam page in a new tab, then refreshed both tabs over and over again for about ten minutes. Nothing on either one. So I copied-and-pasted the View-Source screen contents into the Report spam big text field, clicked Report, and off it went. Fortunately it was kind of short, but what if a spam has a big bunch of attachments -- won't the source be so big it won't fit into the text field? I remember reading somewhere that the text field has a limit, and there's also a limit to the Email size, but it's a lot bigger.

But the bottom line is, I've Emailed spams to SpamCop as I described here for years, and until only recently it has worked, even after re-configuring my Email host (Comcast). Could it have to do with these recent anti-spammer changes? Or should I speak with Comcast (whose customer service royally SUCKS!)?

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&nbsp &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp The evidence you've mentioned seems to me to VERY strongly point to Comcast filtering outgoing e-mail as the most likely culprit. I would not be at all surprised to learn either that they've recently strengthened their outgoing filtering or that you just happen to have recently been getting spam that, unlike earlier types, is subject to getting caught by their outgoing filters. I would definitely suggest that you initiate a conversation with them. You may not get very savvy assistance at first but hopefully if you press, the first-level support person will escalate it to someone in Comcast who is actually knowledgeable. To get that done, you may have to insist on speaking to the first-level support person's supervisor. A general internet search for "Comcast support" might turn up hints as to how you can get the attention of someone who can actually help you. A final approach might be to talk to Comcast's Retention group and threaten to end your relationship with them unless they can connect you with someone who can help. Be aware, though, that the answer may turn out to be that they just don't want to risk allowing spam to go through their outgoing servers, even to a reporting service like SpamCop.

&nbsp &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Good luck!

<snip>

I remember reading somewhere that the text field has a limit, and there's also a limit to the Email size, but it's a lot bigger.

<snip>

&nbsp &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Have a glance at the last note in the SpamCop FAQ beneath "Is there a limit on reporting spam?" and also that article itself.

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... Fortunately it was kind of short, but what if a spam has a big bunch of attachments -- won't the source be so big it won't fit into the text field? I remember reading somewhere that the text field has a limit, and there's also a limit to the Email size, but it's a lot bigger. ...
__________________________________________________________________________________________
In addition to what Steve T has said, it is permissible to truncate the body of a spam submission. You can even eliminate it entirely (but you have to have something there - the parser looks for at least a blank line following the headers, then some following content, even if it is just your own note, such as "spam body removed"). That might also save on fuel, if you are a paying reporter.
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... Fortunately it was kind of short, but what if a spam has a big bunch of attachments -- won't the source be so big it won't fit into the text field? I remember reading somewhere that the text field has a limit, and there's also a limit to the Email size, but it's a lot bigger. ...
__________________________________________________________________________________________
In addition to what Steve T has said, it is permissible to truncate the body of a spam submission. You can even eliminate it entirely (but you have to have something there - the parser looks for at least a blank line following the headers, then some following content, even if it is just your own note, such as "spam body removed"). That might also save on fuel, if you are a paying reporter.

If you use the direct, paste it in, web page you get a note when the spam exceeds 50 000 bytes and IIRC offers 'truncate or cancel'.

I have used this feature with a > 1 MB spam and it works fine.

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I think I've solved the issue.

The way I've been reporting spam all this time is to forward each one as an attachment to not only my submit... address but also:

abuse[at]comcast.net
missed-spam[at]comcast.net
mta-abuse[at]comcast.net
phishing-report[at]us-cert.gov
reportphishing[at]antiphishing.org
reportphishing[at]apwg.org
spam[at]uce.gov

...and I guess that's too many recipients now.

I've had recent success (although not 100%) by sending each spam only to my secret address. So I guess that's what I should do now.

FYI go to http://www.abuse.net/lookup.phtml to get a page where you can enter a domain, and it will tell you where to forward spam. It's not 100% accurate, but if you know an Email address they don't, there's a systematic way you can tell them many.

Finally, thanks to all for your help and responses.

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&nbsp &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp jasmith4, note that you can include several of those other addresses to which you had been forwarding your spam in the SC reporting system's Preferences | "Report Handling Options" | "Public standard report recipients." You enter the addresses into that form separated by a comma and a space. Unfortunately, the field has a 100-character limit. But that could be enough to allow you to report to some in that way and the rest as you had been previously when you send the e-mail to your secret SpamCop address.

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