spam support
- Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 12:03:44 -0000
We recently became aware of a spam support service here thanks to a posting
in a newsgroup:
www.emaillistclub.com
The guy is based in Portsmouth, England and basically trawls the web
compiling lists of email addresses, then selling them (with spamming
software of course) to those guys who live in trailers in Florida and send
the $5 to 5 people scam, etc.
This site was hosted by Claranet in the UK, but they closed it down within a
couple of days after being notified. It then moved to a company downstream
of Level3.com. The actual hosting company is called VideoNext.com and they
have not closed the site despite frequent messages we have sent to Level3
and VideoNext. The site is in breach of Virginia law, which is where the
site is hosted.
We eventually contacted the Internet Services Manager in the UK who said the
following:
>I have contacted the organisation which run the actual web site for
>emaillistclub.com directly. I have been assured you can remove your email
>address from their list by following the instructions on their web site. It
>will take 24 hours to filter through. This will only stop spam directed
>through their list and not spam from any other source. I suggest you remove
>your address from their list and see what happens to the number of spam
mail
>you receive. As I stated I believe it it far more effective to target the
>direct source, if known, of any spam issue.
>Let me know what happens with mail volumes tomorrow.
>Regards
>Caroline
>Caroline Skene
>Internet Services Manager
>Level (3) Communications
>+44 (0)20 7954 2908
>
So there you have it. Level3 is quite happy for this guy to sell illegal
spamware on their network, in breach of their own AUP and Virginia state
law. Not a compliance officer in sight. It's up to us to ask spammers to
remove us.
Perhaps some of you folks might want to contact Caroline Skene to explain
what spam is. I don't think she has a clue. I'm sure she'd be happy if you
forwarded all those 'send $5 to these 5 people' emails you receive to her.
After all, she can always ask to 'be removed'.
It might also be worth blocking Level3 IPs. Maybe they will change their
mind about hosting these kinds of people if it starts to inconvenience them.
