Cyfunfan:
We are testing some new mailing software and sent 500k emails out from EV1Servers.Net yesterday and got a few complaints of course.
I thought it would be helpful for those trying to go compliant to see how to handle a complaint.
This is the ORIGINAL ABUSE WARNING I received...
==================================================
Customer ID = {PERSONALINFORMATIONREMOVED}
Customer Login = {PERSONALINFORMATIONREMOVED}
There has just been a new Abuse Trouble Ticket opened online. This email has been sent to notify you that there is an open Trouble Ticket online to read and Update to resolve the problem.
Tech Notes:
4/21/2005 - jcox - 8:50:09 AM - Abuse - Warning - Spamvertised Domain - ALL -> Dear Customer,
You are being contacted because Ev1servers has received complaints concerning unsolicited emails originating from an IP address assigned to you. As an Ev1servers customer you are expected to adhere our Acceptable Use Policies. Here is a summary of our AUP. To read in its entirety go to
0000://-http://www.ev1servers.net/english/aboutus/aup.asp: This Acceptable Use Policy applies to all persons and entities (collectively, "customers") using the products and services of Ev1servers.net, ("Ev1servers") including Internet service. The policy is designed to protect the security, integrity, reliability, and privacy of both the Ev1servers network and the products and services Ev1servers offers to its customers. Ev1servers reserves the right to modify this policy at any time, effective immediately upon posting of the modification. Your use of Ev1serverss products and services constitutes your acceptance of the Acceptable Use Policy in effect at the time of your use. You are solely responsible for any and all acts and omissions that occur during or relating to your use of the service, and you agree not to engage in any unacceptable use of the service. We recognize that you may not be the one that has sent the unsolicited email (spam), however in our Acceptable Use Policy: Third Party Accountability: EV1Servers subscribers will be held responsible and accountable for any activity by third parties, using their account, that violates guidelines created within the Acceptable Use Policy.
We have received 7 complaint(s) on your IP address. Below we have included a sample of the complaints received for your review. This type of email abuse violates Ev1servers Acceptable Use Policy. Please take prompt and appropriate disciplinary action against your customer. Your cooperation with this matter would be greatly appreciated.
If you need any assistance finding the source of the abuse please contact Ev1servers.net Support Team. We recognize that you would like to respond to these allegations, and as part of our investigation process, we require your feedback as soon as possible. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding these allegations. To better serve you please log in to the members section and update the trouble ticket, rather than responding to this email. Thank you for choosing Ev1servers.net if you feel that this message has reached the wrong party, or that we are in error, please respond and let us know.
Some useful links:
0000://-http://www.sendmail.org
ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2505.txt
0000://qmail.org
0000://-http://www.scriptarchive.com/formmail.html
0000://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/security_tips.html
0000://forums.ev1servers.net
--
Regards,
Janna
Abuse Team
abuse@ev1servers.net
-----------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this for the following reasons:
66.98.253.22 was the originating server of this spam.
Received: from rdataems3.info ([66.98.253.22])
66.98.253.22 is assigned to [{PERSONALINFORMATIONREMOVED}], which is your account and it was assigned to you on [2/15/2005].
host rdataems1.info
rdataems1.info has address 66.98.252.49
66.98.252.49 is assigned to [{PERSONALINFORMATIONREMOVED}], which is your account and it was assigned to you on [2/14/2005].
-----------------------------------------------------
Status: U
Return-Path: <sender-4-70905-24@rdataems3.info>
Received: from rdataems3.info ([66.98.253.22])
by cave.mail.atl.earthlink.net (EarthLink SMTP Server) with SMTP id 1do3Be1up3Nl3pX0 for <x>; Tue, 19 Apr 2005 21:01:52 -0400 (EDT)
Content-Type: text/html;
From: Natalie Robins <cashviewltd@yahoo.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Brian Vater <x>
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 01:01:31 +0000
Message-ID: <4265a9eb@rdataems1.info>
Subject: The Ideal Internet Business
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rdataems1.info
X-ELNK-AV: 0
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title>computer</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </head>
<body>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
Dear Brian,
<br>
<br>
Have you ever had problems with your computer, and couldnt be bothered with trying to fix it, or calling someone to come over?<br>
<br>
Im talking about peace of mind, and believe it or not... over the last year
I ended up building a business around this very concept.<br>
<br>
This has become the easiest thing Ive ever done in my life, and the most rewarding.
If things go to plan, I expect to be doing this exclusively and full time by
may or june.<br>
<br>
But... you dont have to believe me, Im only the weaker gender. <br>
<br>
0000://rdataems1.info/t/4/24/70905/26">Take a look</a><br>
<br>
<br>
Thank you,<br>
Natalie Robins
<br>
<p align="center"><font color="#999999">East-West Discoveries - 10720 W. Indian School Rd. Ste. 19-166
- Phoenix, AZ 85037</font>
</font>
<br><br> ______________________________________________________<br>
<br>
To change your subscription details or stop receiving emails,
0000://rdataems1.info/c/4/bvater%40ionet.net">click here</a> [img]<a href=[/img]0000://rdataems1.info/ctx.pl?m=24</a>"></body></html>
Regards
Abuse Team
==================================================
Then I responded with the following message to the abuse department...
==================================================
Abuse Department,
We are writing to you in response to the following email we received from your abuse department. The emails in question were sent in 100% compliance with the Can-Spam Act. All email marketing performed by our company contains...
1) Non misleading subject lines.
2) Valid from addresses
3) A physical mailing address where parties can send mail and request no further solicitations
4) A removal link so they can be permanently removed from our lists
Although not necessary in the federal Can-Spam act, we only market to those recipients who have opted to receive email solicitations. If you would kindly forward us the email addresses of the people filing complaints we will...
1) provide you with detailed information about the source of their opt-ins
2) remove the emails from our databases and send no further offers to them to ensure you receive no more complaints
Thank you very much for your cooperation. We look forward to our continued relationship with EV1.
{PERSONALINFORMATIONREMOVED}, President
{PERSONALINFORMATIONREMOVED}
==================================================
Then they wrote me back...
==================================================
The Trouble Ticket you entered into the Members Section of EV1Servers.net has been modified. The following notes have been made to your ticket.
------------------------
Dear {PERSONALINFORMATIONREMOVED},
Please provide the optin information for the complaint provided in the origianl email.
Regards,
Grace
Abuse Team
Ev1servers.net
--
------------------------
You may log into the Members Section and view the Status of the Ticket.
Thank you for Choosing EV1Servers.net
abuse@ev1servers.net
==================================================
To which I responded after finding him in our lists...
==================================================
Abuse Team,
Per your request, here is the information regarding Mr. Vater. He opted into one of our affiliates sites with the following information.
xxxx@ionet.net
Bxxx Vxxx
69xx Fielxxarx
Arlington, TX 76002
(xxx) xxx-xxxxx
On 12/06/2004 at 1:32:00 PM.
The affiliate website was -
http://www.myamazingformula.com and his ip address was logged as 166.106.xxx.xx during his visit.
We have removed Mr. Vater from our marketing lists and he will receive no further solicitations from us.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.
{PERSONALINFORMATIONREMOVED}, President
{PERSONALINFORMATIONREMOVED}
==================================================
Then believe it or not they responded back within minutes with...
==================================================
The Trouble Ticket you entered into the Members Section of EV1Servers.net has been modified. The following notes have been made to your ticket.
------------------------
- - Thank you for your quick attention and response to this matter is much appreciated. Thank you for choosing ev1servers.net
------------------------
You may log into the Members Section and view the Status of the Ticket.
Thank you for Choosing EV1Servers.net
abuse@ev1servers.net
==================================================
_________________
"The Facilitator"
Daily OPT-In Feeds...
Daily Leads all types...
Mailing Lists all types...
ICQ 278-352-xxx
AttorneyJaffe
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 1:05 pm
Post subject:
_________________
Cyfunfan contacted me and asked if I would comment on his post.
My response was that I thought his reply was perfect. He stated he was Can-Spam compliant and provided the contact info and footprint of the person who sent the complaint. He could not have done better in answering the abuse department.
However, it has been my experience that once you are contacted by the abuse department your days are numbered. I recommend to my clients that they start researching alternate suppliers the day they speak to the abuse department on the phone for the first time.
Personnel in the abuse department love their power. Further, they don`t usually care if you are Can-Spam compliant, their attitude is that even if you are compliant it is still spam.
While I think cyfunfan did the right thing I can only hope the abuse department will leave him alone. If they do, it may be the dawning of a new day.
_________________
Andrew M. Jaffe
Attorney at Law
(xxx) xxx-xxxx
xxxxxxxx@aol.com
This web site is for assistance and information only and does not provide legal advice. The attorney-client relationship is not established by this site.
oldawg
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 1:27 pm
Post subject:
_________________
Yes I agree with that.
Bottom line is that even though you are compliant you are probably violating the AUP/ Terms of service agreement
between you and the upstream.
Most hosts dont care if you are compliant. Their terms usually say no UCE of anykind.
But that was definately the way to answer a complaint
to your upstream.
Ad Guy
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 6:38 pm
Post subject:
_________________
Well, I disagree somewhat, for one reason only. To me, what Cyfunfan has isn`t UCE, it`s opt-in. So I think there is a major difference between being a Can Spam compliant bulker and being an opt-in "responder". I don`t know of any server provider that restricts opt-in marketing campaigns or autoresponders.
Of course, I`m not really sure what terms they DO have regarding opt-in mailings or things similar to autoresponders, because I`ve never actually READ their Terms of Service! haha.
Oh, and I thought the letter Cy responded with was quite good.
_________________
Ad Guy
cyfunfan
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:11 pm
Post subject:
_________________
Thanks guys. BTW I`ll keep you posted on further developments, but I`m going to work on building this "relationship". Basically I`m going to see how far I can go with this dialogue and remain a customer.
Cy
_________________
"The Facilitator"
Daily OPT-In Feeds...
Daily Leads all types...
Mailing Lists all types...
ICQ 278-352-xxx
f000ker
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:30 pm
Post subject:
_________________
good read indeed been looking into optin .
Gregorius
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 12:03 pm
Post subject:
_________________
cyfunfan - I think I agree with Jaffe. The pencil-necks in the abuse department will `try` to work with you but will ultimately terminate you. We had a go with email-labs a while back and had a very similar experience - It seems ultimately they had an internal discussion about us and we got canned. Our account reps there were quite friendly and very appologetic (hell they even wound up buying our product for their own marketing department!) In the end though we were shut down (and on to the next opportunity - never say die! ) Good luck bud.
_________________
Greg
L-isback
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:03 pm
Post subject:
_________________
Here is the long and the short of it.
The pencil necks would like to keep you around because you add revenue to their bottom line, BUT what really happens is the fucking Soup Nazis of the internet start with subtle threats at first, then as the days go on, the threats become more and more drastic.
They begin to threaten that they will black hole every IP allocation that belongs to the ISP or data center, so they have no other option, but to kick you off.
I have seen it time and time again, it happend to myself with blocks I bought, and to customers I used to provide service to. I used to be part owner of an ISP in the past, and it got really fucking bad.
We had a customer who we got a /20 for. The antis made our life miserable. They even began to DDOS our whole data center, and totally disrupt our legitimate business until we gave in and shut off the allocation, and it was an optin company too.
Its a very unfair business, with no checks and balances to make it a fair business. And the antis will even black hole the whole Allocation, even IPs where there is no mail originating from.
The whole thing just fucking sucks. The guys who try to do things the right way, are still shut down. The way the laws are written, you must clearly identify yourself, then when you are locked down, and your mail shut out, you try to get around their unlawful blocking of your mail, then they have all the evidence the man needs to nail you to the cross!!!
The whole thing is one sided!
You cant sue ISPs, but ISPs can sue you.
You cant do anything to evaded their filtering, but if you use the tactics required to evade the filtering, you are fucked.
And they wonder why most guys dont even bother to comply.
The law was passed so the big boys and their buddies can mail, and not the little guys.
Lobbied, bought and paid for by the big companies.
L.
kk5000
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:25 am
Post subject:
_________________
I think my friend Ad Guy hit the nail on the head as usual. If you can provide optin info you are no longer spamming. Most providers will be unable to terminate you and why would they? You are mailing to folks that have opted in!
This is not news. Now I would love to be can spam compliant and mailing to people who have not opted in and still not get cut off. That is unlikely of course
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