dg3274 Posted June 15, 2006 Share Posted June 15, 2006 I recieved the following email today and I am wondering if I should take any further action. I don't know if this is a spammer trying to play the innocent card or if this guy is really innocent. Here is the email. I have edited out names with italics for privacy.What do you guys think? To Mr. My name, I am the owner of name of spamvertized site and have been contacted twice by my hosting company regarding an email advertisement that was reported through SpamCop as spam. This email was sent using email broadcast services prior to June 5, 2006 and I have since discontinued use of all email advertising services since the first complaint. I do not know which service sent the email as I have used many. After the first complaint on June 5th I contacted the company, RunBox.com, who is supposedly the originator (newsletterinfo[at]runbox.com) of the email. It is not a company I have ever used and they assured me that the email address was no longer in use and that they suspected it may have been hijacked by some other user. Though I am sure the originator of this complaint wishes to remain anonymous, and the email promotes a website owned by me I am not the one sending the email nor am I currently using any service that is sending out emails promoting my site. My hosting company has threatened to close my website if this continues therefore, if you can contact the originator of this complaint I would appreciate it if you could inform them that the email is not coming from me. Sincerely, spamvertized site owner spamvertized site address Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agsteele Posted June 15, 2006 Share Posted June 15, 2006 I recieved the following email today and I am wondering if I should take any further action. I don't know if this is a spammer trying to play the innocent card or if this guy is really innocent. Here is the email. I have edited out names with italics for privacy.What do you guys think? Personally, I'd do nothing and keep on reporting where appropriate. Remember, a SpamCop report looks at the originating IP address so if this person's IP address is being reported then he is still originating the spew. If it is a report of a so-called spamervertised URL within a message then he/she has plenty of opportunity to explain to his provider that his URL is being used without his permission. (That said, I'm not generally in favour of reporting spamervertised URLs for this very reason and the load that such forged URLs create but that's for another debate :-) ). Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Betsy Posted June 15, 2006 Share Posted June 15, 2006 IMHO, it is rude to ignore when someone takes the time to respond to a spamcop report. It is, however, a chore to reply directly since you have to be careful your email address is not exposed. I would forward the response to the deputies and ask them to handle it since I don't know what spamcop's policy is about reporting spamvertized web sites erroneously - if he is telling the truth - or whether they can tell if it is the truth or not. [deputies -at- spamcop.net] I believe there is a way to identify 'Innocent Bystanders' - originally established because spammers were using the names of well known websites like the IRS to bolster the look of legitimacy. The deputies may be able to direct this person on how to claim that status if it applies to non-well known sites as well. There must be some strict rules to be able to claim that status though and it may not be given to anyone who has truly used spam to advertise. (disclaimer - everything in this paragraph is a guess. I am not employed by spamcop and don't keep up with how spamvertized URLs are reported since I agree with Andrew that, in general, it creates more problems than it solves. If the 'source' IP address refused to send it, there would be no spam.) The deputies may be willing to help this person in whatever way they can, because the object of the reports is to get people to find a problem and fix it and they may not want people who have fixed something to continue to have problems. Miss Betsy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btech Posted June 15, 2006 Share Posted June 15, 2006 Personally, I'd do nothing and keep on reporting where appropriate. Remember, a SpamCop report looks at the originating IP address so if this person's IP address is being reported then he is still originating the spew. I agree that I'd continue to report the person and let them explain it to their host. As for the IP, the sending IP isn't the issue, it's that someone is spamming (so he claims) with his site's URL. So either he's a spammer OR he pissed one off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dg3274 Posted June 16, 2006 Author Share Posted June 16, 2006 Thank you all for your input on this. I took Miss Betsy's suggestion and forwarded the email off to the deputies along with a link to the spam report. I guess I will see what they have to say about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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