Hello All:
Once again, the OTnow e-mail list has been 'turned in' for spamming.
This previously happened about two years ago and resulted in major
changes to the OTlist, including the removal of about 100 subscribers
and eventually the removal of the entire list.
This most current spam report was reported TODAY by an OTlist member who
has an AOL account. The person reported as spam, the message with the
subject "my own long winded non sensical rant".
As far as I can tell, there are two possibilities why this happened:
1. The person accidently reported the message as spam.
Apparently AOL makes reporting Spam very easy
2. The person did it because they were mad, upset, offended or
something along these lines.
I've been down this road before. If you are sending spam reports about
OTnow, STOP. To my knowledge, there has not been ANY spam messages on
this list. And certainly, none of the most recent messages have been
spam. Turning in a non-spam message as spam may have dire consequences
for the entire list.
If you are the reader who did this, please feel free to send me or the
list a message about why you think the message was spam. If you did it
accidently, then please let me know so that I can forward that
information to my ISP.
Unfortunately, I was not able to identify the person responsible for the
spam, otherwise I would remove them from the list. But if another spam
report occurs, I am afraid that I will be required to take a shotgun
approach and REMOVE ALL AOL subscribers. At last check, this amounts to
almost 30 subscribers.
So, if YOU want to see about 30 of your colleagues unsubscribed from
the OTlist, keep sending spam warnings.
If you think you are receiving spam from the list, then SEND ME A
MESSAGE. It makes me very upset that someone could report a message as
spam without themselves actually being identified.
For your 'reading pleasure', I've included the warning message that I
received from my ISP.
===========> Forwarded Message Follows ....
On12/9/2005, Lunarpages, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
L> Ron Carson,
L> We have received complaints of spam originating from your domain
L> otnow.com. If we continue to receive complaints, we will have no
L> choice but to suspend your account. We have a zero tolerance toward
L> spam as it states in our Terms of Service and this issue must be
L> addressed immediately.
L> -------------------------
L> **WHAT IS SPAM?**
L> -------------------------
L> Spam is unsolicited bulk email. This can originate from any type
L> of mass mailing such as a mailing list or mass email from a forum.
L> Most spam is used to sell or promote a product but it can also be
L> newsletters or announcements. Many ISPs make it very easy to report
L> spam; therefore, everyone must take steps to avoid accusations.
L> Lunarpages must comply with the regulations for preventing spam or
L> our servers will be in jeopardy of becoming blacklisted.
L> Blacklisting a server will affect every customer on the server not
L> just a specific account.
L> -------------------------
L> **BUT I DONT SPAM!**
L> -------------------------
L> Lunarpages does not determine what is or is not considered spam.
L> We receive reports from ISPs (such as AOL) or spam reporting
L> agencies (such as Spam Cop) which we must address. The email that
L> was reported originated from your account and was sent using our
L> servers. The email was reported by the recipient as spam.
L> Lunarpages does not have the authority to override a determination of
L> spam. Lunarpages is not notified who reported the email as spam.
L> Do you have an opt-in mailing list? A common complaint is that
L> all subscribers agreed to receive mailings. Unfortunately, not
L> everyone remembers they agreed to sign up or perhaps they didnt take
L> the time to unsubscribe. While we sympathize with this, we can not
L> ignore the complaints and one of your users did report the mailing as
L> spam.
L> Do you forward your account email to your AOL address? If you do
L> this and then report spam yourself, it shows the last account that
L> handled the email was yours. You were, in effect, reporting yourself
L> as a spammer.
L> -------------------------
L> **WHAT CAN I DO?**
L> -------------------------
L> In order for Lunarpages to continue business worldwide, we must
L> address every instance of spam reported on our servers. Even if you
L> do not believe the email reported as spam was such, we must take
L> action to eliminate this from reoccurring.
L> If you are sending out unsolicited bulk email, this is against
L> our Terms of Service. You must cease all spam activity immediately.
L> If you have an opt-in mailing list or forum, it is highly
L> suggested that all AOL email address are removed and no AOL addresses
L> are allowed to sign up. While this might not seem fair, the largest
L> quantity of complaints come from AOL users and weve found
L> eliminating AOL addresses helps significantly in minimizing the risk
L> of complaints. You can have the AOL customers supply an alternate,
L> non-AOL email address.
L> Make it as easy as possible to unsubscribe from your list. A one
L> click unsubscribe is best. Please note, though, that having a way to
L> unsubscribe is not sufficient alone to prevent spam accusations.
L> Do not forward emails to an AOL account. If you must forward
L> emails, ensure that you do not report spam from your account for
L> emails that originated in your Lunarpages email. We suggest using
L> Spam Assassin and email filters via your cpanel to eliminate spam.
L> -------------------------
L> **NOW WHAT?**
L> -------------------------
L> You must take steps to ensure your emails are free from accusations of spam.
L> This is a problem facing all web hosts. This is not an issue
L> exclusive to Lunarpages; however, Lunarpages does attempt to make
L> every effort reasonably possible for the customer to resolve the
L> issue before more drastic steps are taken. We send this initial
L> warning in an attempt to allow our customers an opportunity to
L> correct the problem. If you choose not to take action by cleaning up
L> your email sending practices, to ignore the problem or to continue
L> spamming, we will have no choice but to take further action. This
L> may include suspension of your emailing privileges, suspension or
L> even termination of your account.
L> We want to continue our relationship with you as our customer and
L> will assist you in any way possible. If you have any questions that
L> are not addressed in this email, please send an email to
L> [EMAIL PROTECTED] where we address specific issues of spam
L> complaints and subsequent suspensions.
L> Thank you for your assistance in maintaining a spam free server
L> and we look forward to many years of a successful business
L> relationship.
--
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