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Esteban

Jan 5, 2003, 6:25 AM

Post #1 of 5 (4121 views)

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Mexconnect Email and Spamcop

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It's obvious you guys are running Spamcop to stop spam but that program has an atrocious record for throwing out good email with the bad email. It's like the police need policing. I've been reading a lot about the management of Spamcop and they have a horrible record. Please do some research on these guys. Their program has some big flaws. Huge flaws. I've been banned from sending email to mexconnect SEVERAL times in the last few months and I NEVER send spam. I hate spam. Please don't ask for my ISP's numbers because Spamcop has been known to take revenge on posters who put down their service. I ask again, PLEASE review their system and take a look at some of the negative feedback on it.

Thanks,

esteban

DavidMcL

Jan 5, 2003, 9:57 AM

Post #2 of 5 (4087 views)

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Re: [Esteban] Mexconnect Email and Spamcop

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Fair comment Esteban, I am reviewing the situation this week with my server provider.

David
David McL
WebJefe

johanson

Jan 29, 2003, 8:16 PM

Post #3 of 5 (4051 views)

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Re: [davidmcl] Mexconnect Email and Spamcop

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David I happened to read a posting written more than 3 weeks ago that I wanted to answer. As I write this I am listening to CIOC Victoria on Star Choice here in Ajijic. I'm sending a copy to Estabon because it was he who is most impacted. Your ISP chooses to use SpamCop because it is not labor intensive. Yes it punishes the innocents like Estabon, and that is sad. But one of the advantages of this is that if enough ISPs subscribe to filters like SpamCop, more and more folks like Estabon will get so mad that they will pressure their ISPs into doing a better job about keeping their clients from sending out Spam. Several years ago several users at your ISP were sending out large amounts of spam. And emails from his clients was being blocked by Spamcop users in the US, Canada. and Europe. His innocent email clients came to him and complained that ISPs using SpamCop were blocking their email. Your ISP now has strong controls and very little Spam is sent out. His clients are happy because they are no longer blocked. I therefore hope that Estabon will place pressure on his ISP to stop allowing so much Spam to be sent out. Estabon does Slim Carlos have anything to do with your ISP? Just to let you know how bad the problem would be without filters, I use an ISP located in WA state but run out of Chatham, Ont. They use a labor intensive filter called SpamAssassin for those who wish to subscribe at more than $20 per year. They use a point system to assign suspicious emails points. If the email is obviously Spam, the user never sees the email. We ( the webmaster and I) tried an experiment, they tagged each suspicious email ****SPAM**** (placed the tag in the subject header) and then forwarded same to me, rather than simply deleting it. I filter all those emails so tagged to a file I call "Spam File". Guess how many I get per day? I average between 30 and 40 and at Christmas sometimes the #s were almost 50. About 95% of my mail is accurately marked. How many spams get through per day? now maybe 3. How many does an address like "support" get at your ISP? also about 3. Although I feel very sorry for Estabon,for he is truly an innocent victim, the true villains are the owners of the ISPs who allow their clients to send out the SPAM, not the ISP owners who choose SpamCop because of its low maintenance costs. pete johanson@cnw,com

Jeannie

Jan 30, 2003, 6:49 AM

Post #4 of 5 (4041 views)

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Re: [johanson] Mexconnect Email and Spamcop

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One of the easiest ways to stop receiving spam is to have an email address that can not be generated by a software program. My daughter has a Hotmail account, notorious for spam emails, but because she uses an unusual name and throws in some numbers she gets little spam. It's like trying to break a code of a password.

Another thing is that people who post on message boards and their email address is visible are most definitely going to get spam.

Spamcop unfortunately does not verify that what is being reported is spam. I could go to Spamcop today and enter Peter's address, put in fake headers and report him for spam. That would then get his ISP listed as an offender and their mail would be rejected. Spamcop is not an answer or a solution.

Spam Assign is not much better. I have sent a test mail through their testing service and anything getting more than 5 points gets tagged as spam. I sent an email using the Laguna server and because it did not recognize Laguna as a real server it attached 3.5 points to my email. Add color to your email and you will get another 0.5 points for every color you use. Use certain key words and more points will be added. It's not hard to reach those 5 points and then your mail gets bounced or forwarded as spam.

I believe that people have to become pro-active with their email addresses as mentioned above and then software programs will not be able to generate their email address.

I have a couple of account with Yahoo, that are unusual names, and rarely do I ever receive a spam mail at these accounts. I also never post them anywhere.

Legitimate businesses are being affected by Spam Cop and Spam Assign and currently Spamcop is part of a class action lawsuit in the US because of it's practices.

Where it will end is anyone's guess, but you can take steps to shut it down yourself.

johanson

Jan 30, 2003, 12:11 PM

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Re: [Jeannie] Mexconnect Email and Spamcop

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Hi "Jeanie". I am no expert at either SpamCop or SpamAssassin and it is fun learning from you guys. A couple of things here. At least with SpamAssassin you can "white list" certain ISPs. (ID certain addresses you don't want filtered out) You mentioned the 5 point system where, it is very easy for even an innocent email to get that many points. That's why my ISP cuts off at 9.5 points. And that sometimes is too low. You are not required to use 5.0

Do I know the perfect filter? Good God no. A friend of mine says it's the delete button. Just as you said Jeanie you can report even innocent ISPs as senders of spam to Spamcop, and if enough of you do it, that ISP will be blocked and it will be the responsibility of the ISP to prove its innocence. Oh well. so much for inocent until proven guilty

At least with SpamAssassin Steve's email would not have been blocked.