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Does Spamcop have different lists like Spamhaus does ?


JohnLM525

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I have been searching for about an hour, and cannot find anything on this forum with regards to different levels of spam-Blocking.

I can accept most blocking of sites, except for Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, Comcast, AOL and other major ISP's as most of my users would get block based upon another users actions.

Is there another list that excludes major ISP's where they have potentially thousands of users ?

I need to block spammers except for major carriers as these would hinder businesses and trade.

Any ideas ?

Yes I am new to this spamcop forum, but have been using an old IMS mail system since about 1998. I tried using Spamcop on several occasions but it does too good a job !

John M

Chicago, IL

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Hi John M,

No the SCBL is a single list - DNS lookup using bl.spamcop.net per http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml and included links. If you wanted to bypass the list in the case of major ISP mailservers and the like you would need to first whitelist those somehow - which could be difficult to set up (to get detail of all the specific IP addresses) and to maintain (because ISPs make changes from time to time).

Unlike some BLs, the SCBL does not "escalate" to list innocent IP addresses within whole ranges, only those individual IP addresses actually sending or promiscuously relaying actual spam get listed. It would be the exceptional case for an otherwise reputable mailserver passing on spam in great volume (or to super-secret spam traps) that might get one of them briefly listed. Yes, there have been complaints from Hotmail and Yahoo users of that happening. Those listings were with good cause but they have happened, I understand. Usually there would be only one or a few servers out of the several/many operated by any major service provider which might be affected at any one time - if it happened.

Volume and the ham:spam ratio makes it unusual for good mailservers and relays to make it on to the list - see http://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/297.html, one of the links via the first url posted above.

Moved from "FAQ Under Construction".

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As a matter of testing, I put bl.spamcop.net into my blacklist section on my server, then went out to my three test accounts on Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail, sent a message from each and found my Gmail account was immediately blocked.

I then tried zen.spamhaus.org and it was blocked there too, so I ran the IP on their site, and it reported that it was blocked due to an "exploit". I then changed to sbl.spamhaus.org (standard spam-block-list), and was able to send without interference.

I have been running the sbl.spamhaus.org since last night, and it has picked up almost all spam with only a couple getting through to my filter which halted delivery due to message content (that is how I was blocking prior to using blacklists).

I was hoping that there was a "major-carrier" exclusion list that Spamcop would not block if ISP's are responsive to immediate removal of accounts. It seems this would be a logical choice to offer such a list.

Am I being naive ?

Sincerely

John Martoccio

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Hi, John!

<snip>

I need to block spammers except for major carriers as these would hinder businesses and trade.

<snip>

...Not a direct reply to your question but I'd suggest that you start by navigating to the "SpamCop FAQ" (link near top left of nearly every, perhaps every, SpamCop Forum page) then look for the link labeled "How do I configure my mailserver to reject mail based on the blocklist?"

<snip>

I was hoping that there was a "major-carrier" exclusion list that Spamcop would not block if ISP's are responsive to immediate removal of accounts. It seems this would be a logical choice to offer such a list.

Am I being naive ?

...Naive in believing it would be a logical choice to offer such a list, naive in believing that there should be such a list, naive in believing that there is such a list or naive in believing that such a list would be of any value? None of the above, I would say, it's just that there is not such a list (at least so far as I, and apparently Farelf, know). Providers who are responsive and take action against spammer accounts theoretically are either never on the SpamCop blacklist or promptly removed. Should you even try to do what you're doing? Well, if you do, you will be risking receiving a lot of spam, as many of the major providers (as Farelf mentioned, that's by specific IP address, not the entire provider domain) are also known spam sources. From the perspective of us victims of spam, it would be preferable to treat e-mail from those sources as potential spam and thereby help increase the pressure on those providers to tighten up against spam. However, it's your call, since it's your server.
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I can accept most blocking of sites, except for Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, Comcast, AOL and other major ISP's as most of my users would get block based upon another users actions.

Not sure I'm reading what you were thinking when you typed this sentence. Please see;

What is SpamCop.net?

What is the SpamCop Blocking List (SCBL)?

You are talking about a 'blocking action' against entire Domains. The SpamCopDNSBL only lists 'active' IP Addresses of spam-spewing servers (and/or compromised systems.) In the past, there were some massive Topics/Disussion started when a Yahoo outgoing server for instance got itself listed. As mentioned above, it's the ration of bad/good (or not reported, non-spamtrap hitting) e-mails that caused the listing of typically one or two (of the countless thousands it seems these days) of their outgoing servers listed ... until such time as they got control of it and shut down the spam spew. (As noted, wih the amount of e-mail coming from these servers, to get listed on the SpamCopDNSBL, the amount of spam being sent is a massive boatload.} Not sure how you translate that into "most of my users would get blocked" ... The reality of the situation is that one/two/a few of 'your users' would possible not receive an e-mail from someone they allegedly know that would be trying to send them an e-mail from Yahoo and had the unfortunate luck to have that outgoing e-mail assigned to the listed spam-spewing outgoing Yahoo server while it was still listed. One of those things where all the cards would have to all fall in the right order at the right time. But even then, the 'blocking action' would not be done 'to' your users, it would only occur (based on your configuration as a straight blocking mode which isn't recommended) would be the 'possibe' blocking of an incoming e-mail headed towards one/two/a few of your users that would be coming from a source that was busy trashing the net with spam at that same time.

However, with the incorporaton of the Mail-Host Configuration of your Reporting Account and continuing code whacking over the years (trying to reach beyond those major-company servers for the real source,) it's been quite a while since those massive complaint Discussions got another start.

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If you find that you must receive mail from any network, I would suggest whitelisting them first in your config and *then* checking whatever BLs you wish to use.

Agreed.

I was having trouble with emails from some of my contacts being blocked due to DNSBL listings that had no obvious connection with the sender, and ended up whitelisting those specific senders.

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