I researched this forum before making this post and I couldn't find any
previous post on this exact problem. iMail said they will not implement my
"feature" suggestion unless they receive many requests from iMail customers
to implement my suggestion. So here it goes...
NEW IMAIL FEATURE:
Restrict the number of outgoing emails that can be sent during a time period
(i.e. a day) by a user account (not just by an IP address) to prevent
spammers from using scripts in webmail or otherwise.
DECLUDE HIJACK:
I don't see why iMail's customers have to spend $249 to another company that
has created a semi-workaround for a much needed fix ("new feature") for the
iMail product. (NOTE: We use Declued JunkMail and its great) Buying Declude
Hijack will not solve our problem because from reading this iMail forum I
have learned that Hijack works by blocking the IP address rather then the
user account (or so it seems). The Declude website on their Hijack product
does not explain its method of blocking. In our escalating arms race with
these spammers they now use scripts that fill out the webmail compose page.
We didn't figure this out, iMail tech support did after we sent them our
massive log files. The spammers are sending upwards of 30,000 emails a day
per user account using this method. Email sent via webmail uses the same IP
address as anybody else using webmail. Declude Hijack would end up blocking
the IP address of our webmail IP so that nobody could send mail using
webmail. If Declude Hijack did it by user account instead of IP (or as an
option) I think it would work. Even then I think iMail should be responsible
for this and not have to depend on Declude for a workaround. The specific
problem comes from spammers using scripts to post to the compose page of
webmail. Declude and SMTP see the webmail IP address of our webmail server
(and/or 127.0.0.1) and not the specific IP address of the user's internet
connection. Am I wrong? Is there another workaround? IMail tech support
tells us there is not.
NEVER ENDING LOOSING BATTLE TO SPAM BLACKLISTS.
This creates a never ending battle that we loose each day with dozens of
spammers creating new accounts all day long and spamming from our webmail
until we shut them down. It is a loosing battle that we will NEVER win until
iMail implements the feature of restricting the number of emails that can be
sent from an account each day. Ipswitch.com is irresponsible with its iMail
product by having absolutely no way to restrict the number of emails sent by
an account each day. Fight spammers don't help them. For example Hotmail.com
and Yahoo.com restrict the number of outgoing emails as do many others and
they should. Everything I have read and researched says that everybody
restricts the number of outgoing emails per day per account to a maximum of
100. But iMail doesn't, spammers must hunt for iMail servers knowing they
can exploit them in this manner. You can't shake the spammers once they have
found you. This means anybody using the iMail product is a sitting duck to
being black listed in numerous SPAM lists (check your mail server at
dnsstuff.com) and it will only get worse. We are listed in six and counting.
Because we are now in SPAMCOP we can't send legitimate email to a number of
mail servers. The iMail product becomes degraded over time as more mail
servers block all email from us as being spam. We can not pay to hire
several people to monitor the log files all day long to see who is sending
out thousands of spam emails again from their new webmail account using
scripts, we delete their account and wait an hour to catch them spamming
again from another new account. There seems to be no way of stopping this
kind of spammer and iMail says there isn't either. They come in from various
Class C IP addresses so blocking them from the firewall doesn't work either.
They must be low wage monkeys trained how to do this to keep the spam
flowing until they have rendered the iMail server's IP address useless via
spam lists.
HOW TO GET THIS FEATURE IMPLEMENTED INTO THE NEXT VERSION OF IMAIL:
I see this more as design flaw rather then as a "new feature". iMail is
contributing to the growing SPAM problem of the world and it renders their
product unusable with time when one single "new feature" can cure the whole
issue. iMail tech support has told me that the only way this feature will be
implemented is if "lots" of iMail customers send an email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (as in not this forum discussion, only by email to this
address) requesting. "New iMail Feature: Restrict the number of outgoing
emails that can be sent during a time period (i.e. a day) by a user account
(not just by an IP address) to prevent spammers from using scripts in
webmail or otherwise.". iMail says if enough people ask for it iMail
development will "move it to the top of their list of new features" for the
next iMail update release. Stop spammers and email IPswitch asking them for
this iMail feature if you want to save your mail server from being
blacklisted if it isn't already.
Rick Godwin
President
Snowboard.com
565,000+ iMail user accounts
iMail customer for 4 years.
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