Reporting problems today?

[turetzsr]

<snip>

Well with only one post, someone took it upon themselves to point out that my signature file has a link in it.

<snip>

What is the point in a signature file? Why even have a tool to insert a link if it's against the rules here?

<snip>

...That "someone" was the acting Forum admin. We "senior" volunteers who form a sort of loose-knit, informal, unofficial "advisory board" agreed that we will err on the side of overcaution in ensuring that nothing even remotely self-promoting or commercial that might be considered "spammy" be allowed. Sorry you thought this was overly restrictive. More often than not, further research of members with such "spammy" signatures uncovers evidence that they are doing this sort of thing on many boards, quite clearly for a purpose equivalent to sending spam; you do not appear to be a member of this group. As you note, signatures are not per se against the rules (see mine at the bottom of my posts; several people have even more complex ones, including links but which are neither self-promoting nor commercial) but nothing that violates the principles I mentioned.

No matter. As I said to the guy who deleted it, I don't really care. This is not a site I promote on.

<snip>

...A pithy question occurs to me but I won't bother with it for fear of being accused of "trolling." <g>

Honest, you need to worry more on fixing the real problems at hand and not slapping a new poster for something so trivial.

...Sorry, I guess you missed the comment that appears near the top of the page: "The primary mode of support here is peer-to-peer, meaning users helping other users." In other words, the people in this forum, including the Forum admin, acting admin and informal, unofficial "advisory board" have nothing to do whatever with the technical side of SpamCop.

<snip>

I can provide the new and old address again (already reported by direct communication to Admin) if it will help.

<snip>

...No, please don't post SpamCop reporting addresses here! Appreciate the offer, though, thank you.

Blows beans?

<snip>

...Replied via PM with cc to originator to confirm. <g>

[ArtmakersWorlds]

...That "someone" was the acting Forum admin. We "senior" volunteers who form a sort of loose-knit, informal, unofficial "advisory board" agreed that we will err on the side of overcaution in ensuring that nothing even remotely self-promoting or commercial that might be considered "spammy" be allowed. Sorry you thought this was overly restrictive. More often than not, further research of members with such "spammy" signatures uncovers evidence that they are doing this sort of thing on many boards, quite clearly for a purpose equivalent to sending spam; you do not appear to be a member of this group. As you note, signatures are not per se against the rules (see mine at the bottom of my posts; several people have even more complex ones, including links but which are neither self-promoting nor commercial) but nothing that violates the principles I mentioned....A pithy question occurs to me but I won't bother with it for fear of being accused of "trolling." <g>...Sorry, I guess you missed the comment that appears near the top of the page: "The primary mode of support here is peer-to-peer, meaning users helping other users." In other words, the people in this forum, including the Forum admin, acting admin and informal, unofficial "advisory board" have nothing to do whatever with the technical side of SpamCop.

...No, please don't post SpamCop reporting addresses here! Appreciate the offer, though, thank you.

...Replied via PM with cc to originator to confirm. <g>

Honest, I don't care about the signature file thing. If spamcop ever starts working again I probably won't be on here at all.

"blows beans." Just being cute. Don't insert too much "meaning" into that one. It's simply a nicer phrase than what I really think of google. If I posted that I'd be banned from this board forever.

Back on topic, I'm STILL getting time outs. Do we have a progress report from anyone?

[turetzsr]

<snip>

If spamcop ever starts working again I probably won't be on here at all.

<snip>

...Okay but you are certainly welcome here!

Back on topic, I'm STILL getting time outs. Do we have a progress report from anyone?

...Not yet, but watch for the relatively frequent posts by Don D'Minion (SpamCopAdmin) and also the page to which you are taken by clicking on the big red link near the top of virtually all SpamCop Forum pages labeled "------>------> Latest and Current Announcements <------<------."

[jodell]

Yes, I have had the same problems mentioned above. Glad to know I'm not the only one.

However, I had one more on top of this:

SpamCop Suspended my privileges for reporting too many spams -- which according to the SpamCop webpage is more that 1000 per 24-hour period. Something must have gone haywire in their system because I could not physically send that many. Yesterday was a busy day because: 1) I received a lot of spams and 2) the SpamCop latency was so bad that either I did not get a response or SpamCop's server timed out. So, maybe I sent (and resent) a total of 50-75 spam reports

Have emailed them several time to say that I have been using SpamCop for over 10 years and and a good SpamCop citizen. So, I requested that them reinstate my account.

However, they do not respond to any emails. Maybe I don't have the correct address or something. Anyone have suggestions about who I should contact? Or, what email address might work?

Thanks,

Jim

[hok]

A new one was created and the old one deleted. I only knew of the change because the "Report to" address looked strange.

Let me further clarify this as I was the first one discovered the e-mail address following "Forward your spam to:" has been changed as original post below:

Everyone except spammers please note:

The e-mail address following "Forward your spam to:" may have been changed, please start using new e-mail address immediately.

Using old "Forward your spam to:" e-mail address will not get a response back from SpamCop.

First, this only apply for users forwarding spam via e-mail.

Second, this only apply if users save "Forward your spam to:" e-mail address in address book and using "Forward your spam to:" e-mail address saved in address book to forward spam by e-mail.

Third, if users forwarding spam via e-mail are not getting response from SpamCop, please pay attention to the e-mail address following "Forward your spam to:" that may have been changed by SpamCop without notice.

Finally, it is not exactly like "A new one was created and the old one deleted.". Instead, it may be changed without notice to user.

[jims]

<snip>

SpamCop Suspended my privileges for reporting too many spams -- which according to the SpamCop webpage is more that 1000 per 24-hour period. Something must have gone haywire in their system because I could not physically send that many. Yesterday was a busy day because: 1) I received a lot of spams and 2) the SpamCop latency was so bad that either I did not get a response or SpamCop's server timed out. So, maybe I sent (and resent) a total of 50-75 spam reports

Have emailed them several time to say that I have been using SpamCop for over 10 years and and a good SpamCop citizen. So, I requested that them reinstate my account.

<snip>>

I've had that issue for 2 days now.

[turetzsr]

<snip>

SpamCop Suspended my privileges for reporting too many spams

<snip>

...Please see my reply to the other article you started. I understand missing it and thinking it's new; it's a relatively infrequently-mentioned subject within this very long topic. <g>

[Payroll Nerd]

first time in about 3 days I've been able to report. Hope it keeps working, but I won't count my chickens before they are hatched!

[Stan_qaz]

Now on the reporting page!

Operational Issues:

Over the past week Cisco has been actively investigating increased spam volumes as a result of increased

botnet activity. The results of this investigation have allowed Cisco to improve on the industry-leading

anti-spam solution to our customers. SpamCop.net is instrumental in collecting message samples for our ongoing

investigation, and as a result some SpamCop.net users looking to submit their spam samples have experienced delays

with the service. We apologize for these intermittent delays and will do everything possible to minimize these

[Farelf]

Also the mail page which links from the reporting page

Jul 9, 2012

[16:15 EDT] Advisory: The Spamcop Reporting System is having some issues which may result in slow spam reporting/timeouts/failure to reach the requested page. The engineers are aware of the problems and working on them. The CESmail email system is not affected by these problems except in those areas where a user is trying to report spam.

[dra007]

Statistic suggests that despite a slight improvement reporting is far from normal, severely crippled and diminished. Whether the root cause has not been eliminated or simply reporters have been dropping out like flies. it is hard to tell at this stage. Regardless, SC looks like is barely surviving this incident..and is gravely wounded!

[lisati]

Let me further clarify this as I was the first one discovered the e-mail address following "Forward your spam to:" has been changed as original post below:

First, this only apply for users forwarding spam via e-mail.

Second, this only apply if users save "Forward your spam to:" e-mail address in address book and using "Forward your spam to:" e-mail address saved in address book to forward spam by e-mail.

Third, if users forwarding spam via e-mail are not getting response from SpamCop, please pay attention to the e-mail address following "Forward your spam to:" that may have been changed by SpamCop without notice.

Finally, it is not exactly like "A new one was created and the old one deleted.". Instead, it may be changed without notice to user.

Thank you. I'm sure the people who have been following this thread are now aware of the change you have observed. I, like others, haven't noticed a change but have been alerted to another possible problem to watch for.

[Farelf]

Statistic suggests that despite a slight improvement reporting is far from normal, severely crippled and diminished. ...

Well, no actual improvement Dr. A - the average process rate continues in a steady decline. From previous SC (Don) indications concerning limitations on reporter submissions there could even be some further capacity losses yet. But, "we" shall overcome!

Perhaps it seems we are the Remnants of an army. Depicted: Assistant Surgeon William Brydon of the British East India Company army with part of his skull missing and on a wounded horse, one of the very few survivors of Major General William Elphinstone's mixed force of 4,500 troops of the British army and the British East India Company army - and some 12,000 civilians - anihilated by Afghan forces led by Akbar Khan in the 90 mile retreat from Kabul during January 1842. "Where is the army?" he was asked when his horse and he stumbled into Jalalabad on Thursday 13 January 1842. "I AM the army!" he famously replied.

But I'm sure we're a lot better off than that - and that we can muster more and more in the days and weeks and months ahead once the capacity is restored.

[csouter]

Well, I just managed to report about 10 of the 50-odd spams I have

submitted over the last 3 days.

After that, the timeouts came back, so I logged out again.

Also, overnight and today, I have received about 4 times as much

spam as I usually get, all spamming fake meds, from about four or

five different sites with Russian or Ukrainian domain names, but, if

past experience is anything to go by, they are probably really in

Korea, China or Turkey.

All other types of spam seem to have stopped. Mystery #1!

Now, the links to the spamvertised sites are clear enough to see in the

spams, just straight links, not images, or anything fancy.

However, the few Spamcop reports I have seen are saying that

no links have been found, yet they're quite plain to see, even in the

plain message source, not obfuscated in any way. Mystery #2!

The SpamCop reports also all showed "Error: couldn't parse head,"

yet for most of the spams, there was a reporting address for the

machine sending me the spam. Mystery #3!

I guess I'll just have to keep on trying.

[Farelf]

Ordinarily someone would ask you to submit tracking URLs on your mystical failures Chris and help discern whether there is anything allowable to be done in overcoming them. BUT in the present time that would just be a further drain on the system and (who knows) might simply be a symptom of the degraded performance. Getting the IP of the e-mail origin of those that do parse is the important thing for now, I think.

"My" spam today were the fake courier advices with attachments which are actually exploits (unrecognised by any of my AV/AM screens/scans on current definitions but known to some of the engines accessed by VirusTotal):

https://www.virustotal.com/file/7b56b174e89...sis/1341986941/

[orenwolf]

Now on the reporting page!

Operational Issues:

Over the past week Cisco has been actively investigating increased spam volumes as a result of increased

botnet activity. The results of this investigation have allowed Cisco to improve on the industry-leading

anti-spam solution to our customers. SpamCop.net is instrumental in collecting message samples for our ongoing

investigation, and as a result some SpamCop.net users looking to submit their spam samples have experienced delays

with the service. We apologize for these intermittent delays and will do everything possible to minimize these

If I read the reporting page comment correctly,

Cisco has identified an increase in spam. In order to process it properly for their own proprietary tools, they are making use of sc resources (one would assume the honeypot addresses), and this use is resulting in slowdowns for "the rest of us".

Am I the only one that sees this as a serious breach of trust with the community? Is this not essentially Cisco screwing the community at large to ensure their commercial product is working as efficiently as possible?

[csouter]

Getting the IP of the e-mail origin of those that do parse is the important thing for now, I think.

All the emails that did parse came up with an address to send a report to.

That's what's mystifying me: those same reports are also saying that the head couldn't be parsed.

How can they get a reporting address if they can't parse the header?

[lisati]

If I read the reporting page comment correctly,

Cisco has identified an increase in spam. In order to process it properly for their own proprietary tools, they are making use of sc resources (one would assume the honeypot addresses), and this use is resulting in slowdowns for "the rest of us".

Am I the only one that sees this as a serious breach of trust with the community? Is this not essentially Cisco screwing the community at large to ensure their commercial product is working as efficiently as possible?

Oh dear, I only just noticed the comment.

[petzl]

Oh dear, I only just noticed the comment.

As long as spammers are being attacked sounds good to me

[efa]

account suspended, spam increase, from 3/day to 25/day, all with the spoken .ua .ru pharma domains

The bad guy are partially identified

[csouter]

I have just managed to get rid of my whole reporting backlog! YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!

SpamCop seems to be functioning normally again.

Fingers crossed, toes crossed, eyes crossed, etc., etc.

[dra007]

As often stated the recovery is only sporadic and intermitent with large lulls of complete lack of functionality...watch the statistics...it shows how poorly we have performed since this fiasco started..

Given recent statement it is becoming evident that a bulk of SC resources are diverted to serve Cisco rather than the dedicated clientele of SC, us!

[csouter]

As often stated the recovery is only sporadic and intermittent

Well, that's why I said I was keeping my fingers, toes, eyes, and everything else crossed!

It has been working for me for about the last hour and a half, and quite quickly responsive, too.

[dra007]

I have to concur with what you say, just manually reported some myself, it seems to be back to speed. I am getting visions of spammers having their jewels cut off very slowly...I can even hear them scream, maybe is just my imagination...

[csouter]

I have to concur with what you say, just manually reported some myself, it seems to be back to speed. I am getting visions of spammers having their jewels cut off very slowly...I can even hear them scream, maybe is just my imagination...

Well said! Hehehehehe!!!!!

Hope springs eternal!