BtwixtGroupLLC Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 How are false reporting legal issues resolved? Who is liable if SpamCop sends false reports to our Bandwidth provider; is it SpamCop or the person submitting the false report? We have received several false reports in the last 2 months from SpamCop, where it is really easy to see it didn't come from us. Now if I loose my provider over this, I would want to seek legal action. However, I am still a little unsure who would be liable, and I would like to first address this with the correct party, before leads to something legal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wazoo Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 The FAQ has this issue addressed, several entries touch on how it works, who makes what decisions, and even what you can do to handle these complaints. As this actually appears to be a Reporting issue (based on the BL not even being mentioned) .. this Topic is being moved from the BL Forum back to the Reporting Forum. You say your bandwidth provider received the complaints, then you say "you" received them. Was there any investigation action performed by your provider? Were the reports simply forwarded to you for some action? Was this against the IP address of an e-mail server or was it a spamvertised web-site? Each has several options available to be taken by the complaint recipient. Have any of those options been followed though to make any changes? Was the "false" report a direct screw-up or was it fallout from some intangible episode of an external (to SpamCop) database / system being down, or might these have been reports that the user had added in additional report targets in the notify? Bottom line, the SpamCop reporting system is a tool, and use of any tool requires oversight by the user. What is not known, based on lack of any specific data provided, is exactly what may have caused your 'false' report. Do you have an example that can be discussed specifically? Further research .. posting IP doesn't seem to be directly connected to the web-site suggested in the use of the company name used for a login name. http://www.dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport.c...main=btwixt.com says no rDNS and has a warning about the server names ... btwixt.com claims to be host server1.btwixt.net Your 1 MX record is: 0 btwixt.com. [TTL=14400] IP=216.180.240.43 [TTL=14400] [uS] Possible chain-test failure? http://btwixt.com/ = web design outfit http://btwixt.net/ = web design, hosting, etc. http://www.btwixtgroupllc.net/ = hosed, password protected file list showing 12/26/04 13:51:06 Slow traceroute btwixt.com Trace btwixt.com (216.180.240.43) ... 12/26/04 14:01:33 Slow traceroute btwixt.net Trace btwixt.net (65.254.38.130) ... 12/26/04 14:03:09 Slow traceroute www.btwixtgroupllc.net Trace www.btwixtgroupllc.net (65.254.38.130) ... 216.180.240.43 not listed in bl.spamcop.net http://www.senderbase.org/?searchBy=ipaddr...=216.180.240.43 Volume Statistics for this IP Magnitude Vol Change vs. Average Last day ........ 0.0 .. -100% Last 30 days .. 0.0 .. -100% Average ........ 0.0 Other information about this IP address Sender Category unknown Network Owner unknown Domain unknown Date of first message seen from this address (blank) CIDR range unknown # of domains controlled by this network owner 0 No address list shown since no email was detected from btwixt.com No address list shown since no email was detected from btwixt.net Report on domain: btwixt.net Volume Statistics for this Domain Magnitude Vol Change vs. 30 Day Last day ........ 0.0 .. -100% Last 30 days .. 2.5 12/26/04 15:17:35 IP block 216.180.240.43 Trying 216.180.240.43 at ARIN Trying 216.180.240 at ARIN OrgName: Global Net Access, LLC OrgID: GNAL-2 Address: 55 Marietta St, NW Address: Suite 1720 City: Atlanta StateProv: GA PostalCode: 30303 Country: US ReferralServer: rwhois://rwhois.gnax.net:4321 NetRange: 216.180.224.0 - 216.180.255.255 CIDR: 216.180.224.0/19 NetName: GNAXNET NetHandle: NET-216-180-224-0-1 Parent: NET-216-0-0-0-0 NetType: Direct Allocation NameServer: DNS1.GNAX.NET NameServer: DNS2.GNAX.NET Perhaps some things may not be as clear-cut as presumed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Betsy Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Spamcop is not liable for 'false' reports. Reporters can be fined or be banned from reporting for false reports. However, the reporter generally makes the report in good faith. And it is simply that - a report that this email was unsolicited. The person who has the responsibility for acting on that report is your ISP. Only your ISP can interpret the headers to determine where the email came from on his system. There are a number of factors that the ISP can take into consideration. Some emails are obvious mistakes from the content. Others can be determined to be confirmed subscription (because the ISP's customer can show a unique token for that email address). Others they may want to investigate by seeing if there are sightings on nanas (which confirms that it was a bulk mailing and that others consider it spam). If you have received reports 'that are easy to see are not from us', then possibly you have a trojanned machine that is sending spam without your knowledge or permission. The one thing that cannot be forged is the sending IP address. I am surprised that your ISP has not mentioned that to you as a possibility. If it were possible to take legal action, IMHO, fining operators of computers who allow themselves to become infected and to spam with viruses or other unsolicited email would be an excellent law. Otherwise, it is perfectly legal for the owner of a server to decide what to accept and what to reject for whatever reasons (even just because he doesn't like words beginning with the letter "B" ). It is also legal for the owner of internet provider service to write contracts that allow the severance of service. Your only legal recourse is with your provider if you can show that they did not follow the rules of your contract with them. I think I would read my contract carefully if you are contemplating legal action. If you would like help in determining why you are receiving these reports, you will need to post the IP address in question (or website if these are reports about a website). Miss Betsy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlyn Posted December 27, 2004 Share Posted December 27, 2004 And what is the IP in question? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellen Posted December 28, 2004 Share Posted December 28, 2004 How are false reporting legal issues resolved? Who is liable if SpamCop sends false reports to our Bandwidth provider; is it SpamCop or the person submitting the false report? We have received several false reports in the last 2 months from SpamCop, where it is really easy to see it didn't come from us. Now if I loose my provider over this, I would want to seek legal action. However, I am still a little unsure who would be liable, and I would like to first address this with the correct party, before leads to something legal. 21802[/snapback] Please write to deputies <at> spamcop.net with the IP in question and the details of the issue. We can research the report(s) and see what is happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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