Spam Cop

An Internet service offering spam filtering for email. Home page: http://www.spamcop.net/.

Positive Testimonials:

I'm very satisfied with SpamCop - so much so that I devoted a wiki page to them. Spam sent to tbc@spamcop.net is delightfully forwarded to ISP officials (who often cancel the offender's account as a result). -- TimChambers

SpamCop is a powerful tool because it immediately informs the system administrators of the ISPs that their IP space is being used to send spam. Several times I´ve received positive responses thanking me for the report. I have been dutifully reporting spams using SpamCop for the past 3 years. Reporting only takes a few seconds more than deleting, once you get the hang of it. For me is an automatic point and click response. I just can´t read email anymore without SpamCop at the side of my email application. If more people report instead of merely trashing Spam we could do some serious damage to these bandits.

It isn´t perfect (what is anyway?) but is a lot better than nothing. -- JohnSimmons?

Negative Testamonials:

My experience was that submitting a couple of days worth of spam, seems to have about doubled the spam I am getting. All messages were represented as filterable; I suppose a less cynical person would have signed up and solved the problem. -- JimRussell

Spamcop is evil and insidious. Users of Spamcop are vigilantes who would punish thousands of innocent users by blocking an entire server if one spammer sneaks on -- even when he is discovered and terminated. -- Spamcop Victim

[I used SpamCop for a while. The spam reporting features are rather clever. I don't have any problem with a spammer causing major problems for a site. We have to count on ISPs being somewhat proactive. (I'm still puzzled why a user sending thousands of emails is hard to detect.)

Even signed up for their filtered email service. This was a mistake. A reliable service SpamCop is not, and I'm afraid will not be any time soon. Eventually I gave up on SpamCop.

Since then I've used MailShell and am rather well satisfied.

Personally, I believe in pushing my mail filtering and sorting to a central service (there is a pattern there:), and MailShell fills the bill.

-- PrestonBannister]

Discussion:

I know! Let's build a highly effective global censorship system! We can start off with a mostly benevolent mob rule, then move to CorporateGovernment via judicial control or buyout later on.

I could cut a big chunk out of the spam I get by blackholing anything that has been near China and Korea, but what if a real person over there wants to talk to me? -- MatthewAstley

Dear SpamCop victim:

There have been a few sporadic reports of people using SpamCop to get revenge by having someone listed. However, it takes more than one report to get a site blacklisted. -- Jim

Also, if you think your mailing list is a legitimate, should you receive a munged spam report, use OptIn?. People in the Internet are wise not to trust OptOut -systems where you request yourself to be removed from the list you received what you consider as a spam from. It is a standard procedure for real spammers to send a decoy message with a claimed OptOut method to find out working e-mail addresses.

A legitimate mailing list operator should in all cases send regular OptIn? request, where the reply would be a request to be kept on the list instead of being removed. This would best serve a large group of people:

Some people are too lazy to remove themselves from mailing lists and even resigning from an e-mail-provider service once they cease using it, if it costs nothing to them. Also as people install spam filters, it might be that their filter filters out your list and the people forget about it. With OptIn? probes, you keep your subscriber database valid - you have no addresses there that nobody reads.

Some people cease interest in lists they have subscribed to, but find it less troublesome to click on Delete than to start an unsubscribing procedure. These people would be pleased to be rid of even this trouble as easily as provided by OptIn? method.

People who do not trust OptOut systems are less probable to send an OptIn? mail to SpamCop than an OptOut mail.

Also you should use opt-in for list subscription. It's easy to write any e-mail address to a web form, but more worksome to send a confirmation e-mail from the claimed subscriber's address. Especially if the confirmation requires an identification code delivered in the confirmation request.

Read my experiences on OptOut -- TomiBgtMantyla

I do not know how efficient SpamCop is, but at least I hope it bothers spammers at least a percentage of the amount their spam bothers me. I can't at the present apply any filters due to certain circumstances, but at least I can make some noise. Also spam-filters don't reduce the amount of extra traffic between mail servers.

Today, I received this e-mail:

From: tom west <twest@yahoo.com> To: [here there was my actual address] Date: Thu, 16 Oct 03 03:15:16 GMT Subject: Spamcop.net = Terrorist orginisation!!! yb niggi

Hello Free Internet User.

You are reciving this email because we are having some trouble with an infamous company (http://spamcop.net) who seem to be hell bent on destroying not only my business but many other legitimate website owners and email list operators.

we generaly get 1 or 2 complaints while mailing subscribers the rest are made up by a fraudulent spamcop.

we always provide working optout links should you ever wish to unsubscribe from our mailing list. its instant and contrary to spamcops propoganda that we will sell your email.

SPAMCOP IS A BUSINESS, THEY BLOCK THE ONLY WAY OF OPTING OUT, SO THEY CAN GET $30 UPSELLS ON THEIR WEBSITE!!!, IF EVERYONE OPTED OUT THEY WOULD HAVE NO BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!

the companys main problems are:

The CEO, one julian haight of (12560 37th Ave. NE Seattle, WA98125US) i belive has a serious attitude problem and is serverly lacking the intelligence to distinguish between an optin mailing with working optout links, and whats commenly know as spam. (or he just doesnt care)

the company and some die hard users(losers) have a "nazi" like attitude to any sort of email.

everyone knows that spam can be a big problem, but often these companys blow it out of proportion for quick profit. they cause financial disruption to companys who have invested years of hard work. they send thousands of unsolicited complaints to hosts/isps.

there needs to be a balance or a monitoring authority put in place to monitor the activities of these sorts of companys. otherwise the internet will no longer be the free place it once was.

if you are fedup with these companies taking away our freedom of speech and our rights to create a legitamite business and want to keep your internet a free place, email your isp and lobby them to use an alternate spam filtering system, one that actuly checks a message to see if it is spam, and checks for unsubscribe links!

Julian haight spamcops CEO is rumoured to have conections with Al-Quada, one of the most disruptive terrorist orginisations on earth. hes specialty is cyber terrorism. which disperses highly needed homeland security funds by rendering multi million dollar industrys unprofitable. haights main motive is the perversion of American free enterprise.

SPAMCOP EVEN BLACKLISTS ITS COMPETITORS!!!

some reading material: http://jimworld.com/apps/webmaster.forums/action::thread/thread::371/forum::direct-mail/ http://www.website101.com/SpamFilter/spamcop_vigilanties.html http://gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=176038&perpage=50&pagenumber=1 http://niba4u.com/ http://www.shopmystate.com/logon/Library/Swami-090301.html

thankyou'

At first, I was worried if I had sent to spamcop some mail I had subscribed to. Especially as there was nothing fishy in the recipient-field. But then I saw through the mail a bit more:

Why would twest@yahoo.com e-mail me about this? This is a private e-mail address, not an address of any official company. Also the mail was not originated from yahoo.com, but islandtelecom.com. Or at least so it seemed in the full headers.
Which company is this?! Not mentioned once in the mail. Islandtelecom? There is no www.islandtelecom.com pages. There should be one with Mr West's name as an employee.
Which "legitimate mail list" am I a member of, since when/why and how should I resign if I wanted to?
Why is there the string? "yb niggi" in the subject? (To get this spam through filters.)
Finally I was convinced with the "Al-Quada"-part of the mail! These guys are using the tragedy of 9/11 to incite opinions in the people of simpler mind than I.

-- TomiBgtMantyla

Spammees should never unsubscribe from something to which they did not subscribe. There is no reason to believe that someone so unethical as to subscribe you without permission would behave honorably with regard to unsubscription.

No major provider suggests its customer should reply to spammers but many advise against it.

A mailing list that contains the addresses of people who did not request to be on the list is called "dirty". Spammers "wash" their "dirty" lists by removing the addresses of people who complain. This process is called "listwashing".

Listwashing is never the appropriate response to spam.

Some spammers act like they don't understand the concept.

Some spammers test the person who reported spam trying to trick them into revealing the email address that received the spam.

Some spammers will use the information supposedly gathered for listwashing purposes to sell that address at a higher price to other spammers, since it is known to be "live".

Some spammers may actually use an email address just to wash the list, but even this just cleans out "troublemakers" rather than stopping the spam that is going to other victims who may lack the technical sophistication to complain to the responsible providers.

Given the ethics already demonstrated by a spammer, there is no way for the spam victim to tell the difference, but none of these can be considered acceptable.

The appropriate response to spam is to remove all names from any mailing list which meets one or more of the following conditions: no confirmation is on file; the confirmation on file lacks a unique identifier to guard against forged subscriptions; or the confirmation on file was given to a different organization or for a different purpose.

Please see http://www.spamhaus.org/removelists.html for more info on how spammers try to get spammees to help them listwash by using global or unified remove lists or sites.

See: SpamDefenseRoadmap, OptOut, OptIn?