Will using spamcop help reduce spam?

[deadcell42]

I have come to know about Spamcop and I want to know if it can track a spam that links to another website. I got a mail which goes like this

"If you are suffering from erectile dysfunction or impotence then Caverject provides you with the perfect solution.

Order it now from

"http://www.drugdelivery.ca/s3366-s-CAVERJECT.aspx"

very often i get mails like this; full of advertisement. i thought of changing my e-mail address but all of my friends and colleagues have this email address. so, i do not want to alter it. will using spamcop be of any help.

[moderator edit - spamvertized url link broken]

[Farelf]

I have come to know about Spamcop and I want to know if it can track a spam that links to another website. I got a mail which goes like this

"If you are suffering from erectile dysfunction or impotence then Caverject provides you with the perfect solution.

Order it now from

"http://www.drugdelivery.ca/s3366-s-CAVERJECT.aspx"

Yes, but that is not SpamCop's main mission. SpamCop is primarily directed towards providing a blocklist of the mail servers which forward that spam. But you or anyone can find the address for a "spamvertized" website easily, using web-based resources here or elsewhere (such as dnsstuff.com). Incidentally, "Your drugdelivery.ca A record is: drugdelivery.ca. A 210.245.151.11" - "abuse[at]newworldtel.com, samuel.tan[at]newworldtel.com" using www.dnsstuff.com and www.abuse.net or by feeding the domain name into the SC parser (free membership allows the use of the parser and reporting functions). SC "full reports" routinely identify domain admins of the spamvertized websites and issue reports but, as said, this is not SC's priority and inevitably those reporters who expect/require the standard SC reports to effortlessly pick up every spamvertizer for them will be disappointed.

... very often i get mails like this; full of advertisement. i thought of changing my e-mail address but all of my friends and colleagues have this email address. so, i do not want to alter it. will using spamcop be of any help.

There are ways to use SC which should help keep spam out of your inbox (no-one can really guarantee it but most have success), those where you use the SC blocking list (and others). Unless you have your own server, that means either using a SC email account - SpamCop Email System for Individuals or use a third party filter that can access the BL - How can I use the blocklist without mailserver configuration?. You need to do some reading and thinking about it (not just the links above, the Wiki entries How I use SpamCop from http://forum.spamcop.net/scwik/PageIndex might give you some ideas), post back here* if you need help.

*You have posted into the "Reporting Help" forum. Yes, reporting is part of the picture (helps support the SC blocking list) but you are evidently not presently a SC reporter with a problem associated with that. I (or someone else) will move these posts when we have time.

[moved and O/P PM'd]

[rconner]

I have come to know about Spamcop and I want to know if it can track a spam that links to another website.

As Farelf indicates, you can use SpamCop to track and report these spams to their sources. SpamCop can also (often but not always) track down the website and report it as well, although, as said, this isn't SpamCop's main mission.

As for the question in the title of your post (which is a slightly different one than the one quoted above), you cannot stop people from trying to send you spam. You can, however, use filters to keep it from appearing in your inbox. SpamCop uses very accurate filters that catch nearly all spam but allow nearly all non-spams to pass unmolested.

In order to use SpamCop to filter your incoming mail, you will need to become a paid subscriber to the SpamCop e-mail service, and then follow the instructions to set up SpamCop for your use. Then, you will need to periodically check the held mail (spam) and report or delete it as you desire. Farelf's references to the SpamCop Wiki (including my own post at http://forum.spamcop.net/scwik/HowIuseSpamCopRconneR) are a good place to see how people do this.

-- rick

[petzl]

I have come to know about Spamcop and I want to know if it can track a spam that links to another website. I got a mail which goes like this

very often i get mails like this; full of advertisement. i thought of changing my e-mail address but all of my friends and colleagues have this email address. so, i do not want to alter it. will using spamcop be of any help.

[moderator edit - spamvertized url link broken]

My conclusions are

Once spammers have your email address they then sell it to other spammers. This means you get attacked increasingly by more and more spammers as time goes on. This said most of received spam "packets" comes from same spammer under a different alias. So if you can take one spammer out you will see a large chunk of spam you receive taken out as well.

Your best and only defence is to attack. SpamCop makes this easy, with sending a abuse report to the ISP where it came from identifying their security problem.

This can and does assist authorities tracking down spammers as well, SpamCop aside from sending evidence to the source provider, SpamCop with your consent, sends to "interested parties"

To attack the spammers website this Freeware program (Complainterator 13) will assist you to do so

http://thecarpcstore.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=797

This increases your effectiveness attack on a spammer although can be time consuming if so selectively attack as you have the time

If a provider is incompetent SpamCop will add the spamming IP to its blocklist (SCBL). This is a spam radar that activates and blocks spam in seconds and as it is being sent not after spam is sent (spam runs last for hours).

If email is important to you pay the US$30 per annum for a SpamCop email account. This effectively sorts email ("ham") from spam and allows "Very Easy Reporting" (VER) at a click of a mouse. Removing and reporting ALL spam in your "spam folder" in one go. This does have a high success in getting the spam from the reported IP's stopped (Too many naive computer users not using my signature allows spammer easy access to other hacked/open computers though. ISP's can/should block port 25 to stop spam being sent)

You can chose to have your SpamCop email account to just retrieve your email from all existing accounts, or face up to just using the only email address you will ever need and that's your SpamCop one. Allow other email addresses to fade out over time as a legacy issue. You can very reliably send and receive email through your SpamCop high speed email account from anywhere in the world (I'm in Sydney Australia). I use a USB and software for this from my home, office on board ships, Internet cafes, etc. I find this method very secure

NEVER AUTOMATICALLY ACCEPT AN EMAIL ADDRESS A ISP TRIES TO ENFORCE ON YOU

Most ISP's are only good at milking your bank account and not Internet connections to which they are simply incompetent at

For first Internet contact use a free throw-away email account like a Hotmail one using a 8 alphanumeric or better handle like one_2_buckle_my_shoe[at]___

[Wazoo]

Technically, I see this Topic as a continuation of the theme addressed in the Discussion at Is it really doing any good?, We keep reporting and reporting, but... .. actually debating about simply merging this 'new' Topic into that old Discussion ... just having a hard time with that as the query here started down one path (tracking down sub-linked URLs) but then ended up with a question about the use of the SpamCop.net Reporting toolset .... I believe this is why the answers / replies seem to be all over the place, trying to answer the multiple aspects of the original multi-pronged 'question' (?)

[rconner]

I believe this is why the answers / replies seem to be all over the place, trying to answer the multiple aspects of the original multi-pronged 'question' (?)

Indeed, deadcell42's question was multi-pronged (or two-pronged, anyway, like an oyster fork). The title of the post asks about reducing spam, while the body asks about tracking spam. For most of us in this enclave, these are really two very different questions, but some folks tend to lump them together into one ("...just make it stop!!"). I think it is useful wherever possible to unravel them.

I get a lot of mail via my website from frustrated people asking how they can "stop" spam. I generally say what I said above, that you usually can't stop spammers from trying to spam you; the best you can do is to take some defensive measures to hinder them (i.e., MDA-filtering, SMTP-rejecting), or else to take more proactive measures where they succeed (i.e., tracking & reporting).

-- rick

[Farelf]

Well, I am the one responsible for the title and the sub-title and my reading of the initial post made it clear that the OP was both interested in tracking the malefactor(s) and concerned about the volume of spam. Maybe the OP thought the two were inextricably linked but I chose not to second-guess about that. Variant interpretations will be cheerfully entertained. Unless such an interpretation issues from the aforesaid OP who is deadcell42 they will then be cordially conducted on their way(s).

[Zaranthos]

I'd have to say that after using spamcop for almost 6 months to report all spam it hasn't reduced my spam at all. I report all spam to spam[at]uce.gov also and they've done jack squat to the spammer(s) that spam me with the same crap daily for years.

I've had the same email address for 6 years or more and don't get a lot of spam (2-9 per day) mainly due to not using the address for anything but important stuff. But even though it's not a lot of spam it's a waste of time and energy every single day of my life just to delete it. I don't use filters because they've burned me in the past by deleting important email and checking a spam folder "just in case" is just as much of a waste as deleting the spam myself.

I'm far from a spam expert but I'm pretty sure I get spammed by one or two of the same people who make new websites and email addresses on a daily basis. They're probably not based in the United States. My guess is my spamcop reporting only makes their spam less effective and forces them to work a little harder since many of the sites they set up are shut down fairly quickly because of abuse reports.

What I do wonder is if my efforts are really worth it. Will the government ever track these bastards down and poke out their eyes with a sharp stick (joking, well, sort of...)? I'm sure it's very difficult to track them down but I doubt it's impossible to track someone who is constantly setting up new email and websites. Does the government really try or are all my spam reports just a statistic and nothing more? I hate spam and the people that make a living tormenting us with it are just jackasses....

[rconner]

What I do wonder is if my efforts are really worth it. Will the government ever track these bastards down and poke out their eyes with a sharp stick (joking, well, sort of...)? I'm sure it's very difficult to track them down but I doubt it's impossible to track someone who is constantly setting up new email and websites. Does the government really try or are all my spam reports just a statistic and nothing more? I hate spam and the people that make a living tormenting us with it are just jackasses....

The mill of justice grinds exceedingly slow, but exceedingly fine, as someone once said. Apropos of this, you might look at this very recent thread: Feds: Notorious Seattle spammer indicted. If you make enough of a target out of yourself as a spammer, you will get shot at. Or, as Monty Python would have had it, "even the police will be forced to sit up and take notice."

On the other hand, many might say that Soloway's day in Federal criminal court was long, long overdue, and the jury is still out (actually, hasn't been selected yet) as to what the outcome will be for him.

-- rick

[StevenUnderwood]

I'd have to say that after using spamcop for almost 6 months to report all spam it hasn't reduced my spam at all.

And it is not likely to unless you are also using the SC DNSBL to filter your spam from your Inbox. Otherwise, you are simply doing a good deed for those of us using the DNSBL.

My guess is my spamcop reporting only makes their spam less effective and forces them to work a little harder since many of the sites they set up are shut down fairly quickly because of abuse reports.

SpamCop only sends warnings to ISP's when a spamvertized link is detected and parsable. Unless the ISP acts on those reports, SpamCop reports are doing nothing to stop websites (not a focus of the service). In fact, my guess is that the majority of people use quick reporting, which does not even attempt to locate a spamvertized site in the spam.

What I do wonder is if my efforts are really worth it.

My understanding of what you are doing leads me to say, no, spamcop reporting is likely not beneficial to you.

If you expected SpamCop reports to stop or lower your spam traffic, please let us know where you got that idea, so we can see about modifying the wording. You are not the first person who came in here expecting to see a drop in the amount of spam seen.

[petzl]

What I do wonder is if my efforts are really worth it. Will the government ever track these bastards down and poke out their eyes with a sharp stick (joking, well, sort of...)? I'm sure it's very difficult to track them down but I doubt it's impossible to track someone who is constantly setting up new email and websites. Does the government really try or are all my spam reports just a statistic and nothing more? I hate spam and the people that make a living tormenting us with it are just jackasses....

If you are getting spam now it will increase as spammers sell your address to other spammers. attack is your best and only defence SpamCop makes this easy

Those Government agencies that do hunt spammers down are most certainly slow on the uptake? A number of major private companies also hunt spammers and often use evidence provided by SpamCop to do so. Australia's Anti-spam Law effectivly stopped Australia from being a spam problem country to a no spam country

I just use the only email address I will ever need which accurately sorts my ham (email) from spam, for me to then easily check for accuracy (and it is) then report all spam that has been sorted for me with a zap of my mouse. This informs ISP's of a spamming/security problem which they do mainly act on.

There are enough ISP's though that do nothing and spammers do reside there having no fear that they will ever be removed, this said these providers are on permanent blacklists. This means spammers spam rarely gets through (neither do messages from their paying customers)

Competent ISP's interested in good name along with reliability of service do react to abuse reports and fix the security issues raised promptly from SpamCop and or individuals and are genuinely appreciative of them

[Zaranthos]

If you expected SpamCop reports to stop or lower your spam traffic, please let us know where you got that idea, so we can see about modifying the wording. You are not the first person who came in here expecting to see a drop in the amount of spam seen.

More than likely I got that idea from another site that directed me here since I heard about this site from somewhere else. No idea where now but that's not important. But if there's a chance my dual reporting will put a stop to spam *someday* it might be worth it. Every spammer that gets prosecuted would be a wake up call to the rest of them (hopefully).