RE: [cobalt-users] SPAM relay bouncing causing mailserver on our network to retry constantly

[Greg Hewitt-Long <cobaltusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> >
>> Your opinion obviously varies to mine, and the way we handle
>> email and SPAM - and that's not a problem - my problem is
>> that our policy with SPAM is to provide our users a way of
>> identifying the spam (changing the subject as MailScanner
>> allows), and to pass the message through - this removes the
>> doubt that a false positive will result in lost business, and
>> puts the onus on the user to filter and ensure any false
>> positives are found, minimizing the exposure you have a
>> hosting provider.
>
>You have no exposure for any actions you take to block spam as long as
>you're not promising anything to your users regarding that. At least one
>state has given ISPs immunity from liability for anything they do to
>block spam. The ISP's, not WPP's, are trying to save disk space and
>answer the needs of their users who are being inundated with spam. (See
>11/11 Blondie comic strip.) If it's a real problem, I'd suggest asking
>those users who have an ISP that is blocking spam to switch from
>forwarding to POP3.
>
>As far as false positives, every rejection of mine carries a message
>with a URL to report. So far, one report due to a typo in my access
>list, otherwise as far as the DNSBL's, I have seen only one report of
>what may be called a false positive in 3 years. And, it turned out not
>to be a false positive as the customer found out from his contact that
>her boss was a porn spammer on the side which led to their listing.


I get "false" positives from realtors whose office mail servers have become listed in DNBLs all the time.  We work with a lot of companies that work with realtors, and we've come across the problem many times.

>
>> If *ANY* hosting provider simply bounces
>> email on the basis that it has been  identified as SPAM, they
>> are exposed to liability for lost emails which are
>> incorrectly identified as SPAM.
>
>No, they're certainly not. If you can cite any court ruling in a case
>where an ISP has been held liable for blocked email I'd love to see it.


I certainly don't intend becoming a test case - it's also more to do with customer service.  If you've ever NOT received email because the sender's network was listed, you'd understand.

>
>BTW, SPAM is a trademark of Hormel. Junk email is spam.

I know.  I use the capitalized version out of choice - like people really have a problem determining that I'm not talking about mechanically reclaimed and processed pork & fat.
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