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[Resolved] Report responses and Statistics


nightowl

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Posted

Hello everyone

I am new to Spamcop and have a couple of newbie questions. . . I have read the FAQ, tried Search and browsed through the forums but couldn't find the answers -- perhaps because they're obvious to everyone else :)

The first is: should I be getting some response to my spam reports? I've reported at least 20 spams over the past few days, but never had any feedback. The second is: when I report a spam, the offending address or ISP never seems to be featured on the Statistics page.

Are these both perhaps because I'm not a paid reporter? Thanks for any light you can shed to help me understand better how it all works.

--

Nowl

Posted

First action ... moving this post out of the section titled and defined as;

How to use .... SpamCop Reporting

How to Instructions Only - Problems and issues belong in the other specific Forum sections

Moving to the more appropriate Reporting Help Forum section.

Posted

Second action .. point to the Preferences section under your logged-in www.spamcop.net page . specifically, the item Titled: Report reply handling

Anything beyond that gets into just who you've been reporting to, what kind of reporting you're actually doing, Mole Reporting for example .... lots of little details and things enter into trying to guess at your specific answer ....

Posted
... Are these both perhaps because I'm not a paid reporter? ...
Hi nightowl. If you email your spam you should get an autoresponder email advising the spam you submitted is ready to report and that contains the link(s) to go and do that. If the spam has been processed but the autoresponder message has not reached you, you can go to your members.spamcop.net/ login and see the message "Unreported spam saved" with a link to finish off the reporting process (there is another link to cancel outstanding reports too). From that page ("Welcome registered user") you can select the Past Report tab, follow the Recent Reports link and see any reports you have sent - or not sent yet.

As far as I know, paying/non-paying status makes no diference to any of that (I'm non-paying myself). So, what do you see when you log in? Maybe there's some registration work yet to do or maybe there's some issues with email between yourself and SpamCop.

[crossed over Wazoo's answer]

Posted
[crossed over Wazoo's answer]

Guess you're right, I did make an assumption about just what kind of 'feedback' was being asked about .... though I did throw out the "guess" factor in trying to answer ....

Posted

The other kind of 'report' - what the ISP you sent your spamcop report to may send you- are very infrequent. Once in a great while, your spamcop report will go to a server admin who either thinks it is a mistake or will send an apology. Since they are so infrequent, many reporters are alarmed when they get one. And many reporters ignore them so that probably a lot of ISPs don't bother.

Even if you accept all replies to reports including auto responses many ISPs don't send auto responses to spamcop reports since most people don't select that preference.

If you have been submitting via cut'n paste in the web form, there won't be any reply. It is only when you submit via email that you receive an autoresponse.

If you have been submitting via email and have not received an auto response, and also have not seen the 'Unreported spam' link, then something has gone wrong. Let us know if any of this answered your question or if you think that there are more problems.

Miss Betsy

Posted
Hello everyone
Hi, Nowl, and welcome!
<snip>

[W]hen I report a spam, the offending address or ISP never seems to be featured on the Statistics page.

...Which statistics page are you viewing?
Posted

Thank you, everyone, for your helpful replies.

First, to Wazoo, I do apologise for posting in the wrong place <blush>. Sorry. Thanks for reminding me about Preferences; I've checked them now.

Farelf, thanks for taking the trouble to go through the reporting process for me. I'm pretty sure it's all working correctly since I can see my recent reports when I click on the link, and I have had replies from SpamCop's autoresponder when submitting by email. It's useful to have it all spelled out though, thank you!

What I *meant* to ask (obviously wasn't as clear as I should have been) was about responses from ISPs; as I never had any, I wondered if the reports were really going through. Miss Betsy's answer has cleared that up for me now, LOL. Thank you, ma'am.

SteveT, when I log in to SpamCop there are tabs at the top of the page saying Report spam, Mailhosts, Statistics, etc. That's the Statistics page I was looking at; have I misunderstood again (quite likely!)?

Thanks to everyone for the friendly welcome.

--

Nowl

Posted
<snip>

SteveT, when I log in to SpamCop there are tabs at the top of the page saying Report spam, Mailhosts, Statistics, etc. That's the Statistics page I was looking at; have I misunderstood again (quite likely!)?

<snip>

Hi, Nowl,

...First: thanks for noticing my sig and addressing me as "SteveT" rather than as "turetzsr!"

...Second: thank you for replying to my question. The page that comes up when I click the "Statistics" tab provides a list of additional links. My follow-up questions would be: is this what you see? If so, which of the many links on that page did you click to view a statistics report?

Posted
Thank you, everyone, for your helpful replies.

You are welcome!

SteveT, when I log in to SpamCop there are tabs at the top of the page saying Report spam, Mailhosts, Statistics, etc. That's the Statistics page I was looking at; have I misunderstood again (quite likely!)?

From your first post, I think you are wondering why your reports don't show up in the Statistics. The explanation is technical and I will not explain it technically. However, someone else might.

There is a lag sometimes between reports and the statistics, I believe. I am not sure why.

Another thing is that 'one' reporter does not add to the algorithym that the blocklist uses to include IP addresses. There is a complicated algorithym that decides whether an IP address goes on the blocklist.

Depending on the spam you are receiving, your contribution might not kick it up enough to show. Sometime later it might show. If you are reporting someone who previously had permission to email you, but didn't respond to unsubscribe responses, it might never show. It is much better to deal directly with that entity if you want to make an impact. It doesn't hurt to keep reporting since you never know when someone else might kick it over the top.

Also, the blocklist does not contain spamvertised addresses.

Perhaps I don't know what you are asking. But just in case that is your question...

Miss Betsy

Posted
The page that comes up when I click the "Statistics" tab provides a list of additional links. My follow-up questions would be: is this what you see? If so, which of the many links on that page did you click to view a statistics report?

Steve T, I was just looking at that first page (of links) itself and expecting the addresses I'd reported to be added. Perhaps Miss Betsy has given me the answer -- it takes more that just my single spam complaint for an address to be featured?

Thanks, both, for your continuing help.

--

Nowl

Posted
Steve T, I was just looking at that first page (of links) itself and expecting the addresses I'd reported to be added. Perhaps Miss Betsy has given me the answer -- it takes more that just my single spam complaint for an address to be featured?

<snip>

...IIUC, you must click on one of the links to see an actual report; there are no reports on that page, itself.

...For at least some of the reports, what Miss Betsy wrote does, indeed, answer your question. I do not know enough about how the reports are generated to know if it's true for all the available reports. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I will weigh in with an answer....

Posted
Steve T, I was just looking at that first page (of links) itself and expecting the addresses I'd reported to be added. Perhaps Miss Betsy has given me the answer -- it takes more that just my single spam complaint for an address to be featured?...
If you are folowing the "Source of Mail" link under "spam in progress" from the [statistics] tab, you raise a very good point - the list purports to be simply a list of abuse reports - *not* entries in the block list. The arcane algorithm arbitrating listing should not be a factor. Checking that, click on any of the recent (top) IP address links and you should see, amongst other things, something like "196.3.183.254 not listed in bl.spamcop.net". I add my voice to that of Steve T, for a more knowledgeable individual to help us out. nightowl's expectation of seeing a recently sent report appearing at the head of the list seems entirely reasonable. Presumably they can't all appear there due to sheer volume (20 or more a second) - some sort of weighting rule must be applying - but these ones seem not (yet) to be blocked/listed. Maybe I'm just being a bit pedantic (but darn it, they ain't listed).
Posted
nightowl's expectation of seeing a recently sent report appearing at the head of the list seems entirely reasonable. Presumably they can't all appear there due to sheer volume (20 or more a second) - some sort of weighting rule must be applying - but these ones seem not (yet) to be blocked/listed. Maybe I'm just being a bit pedantic (but darn it, they ain't listed).

Thanks, Farelf, yes, that's exactly what I meant. Now you've confirmed it I'm happy; it was just that as a newcomer I was wondering if I'd done something wrong when I couldn't see my reported addresses there. Not to worry now I know it's normal. :)

Thanks everyone!

--

Nowl

Posted

Y'r welcome nightowl.

Just for the record - just about (but not quite) every address I have checked since *is* listed. Must have been just a brief glitch on the first occasion which was fortunate because it revealed the factoid that listing isn't the actual criterion for appearance in the "stats" list at http://www.spamcop.net/w3m?action=inprogress

But it is mostly as near to that as makes little or no practical difference. Lord, I've got to get out more.

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