Spamcop.net

[CyberDyne]

Hi
As a long-time user of Spamcop.net, I am starting to wonder if I'm wasting my time.

I know that they alone cannot halt the World's spam, but I would like to know people's opinions please;

Am I wasting my time reporting spam to Spamcop.net or should I continue regardless of whether or not it seem to be having any effect.

Thanks.

[jdtaylor]

I don't believe you are wasting your time, I use it an awful lot and it does help cut down spam amounts in my opinion, but I do think you should look at using the Knujon project as well as they might even be more effective from my own experiences.

[hadaso]

You (and I) are not reporting to Spamcop but rather using Spamcop to report to the adminstrators of networks where spam originated (or that host the spammers' websites).

I don't think that SpamCop has been effective in reducing the amount of spam I get. I don't believe most spam reported is acted upon (I see that spammers are still hosted after I reported many times and for many years). I hope some of the recipients of reports find it useful.

I got one response for an administrator I reported to that confirmed that an IP address I reported is actually an infected PC. I reported this to the Israeli police computer crime unit (it's an identifiable Israeli spammer selling botnet based services). They investigated but said there's not much they can do with an email report from a sysadmin in another country.

I continue to report all the local spam I get. I don't report all the spam I get as it's too much work.

I think what's really needed is a reporting system that can connect spam recipients that can identify the advertisers with PC owners whose infected PCs that were used to send the spam. This would provide people with infected PCs with evidence that can be used to sue those who abused their PCs.

[CyberDyne]

Your replies are greatly appreciated guys.
Thank you.

I'll probably continue to report as much as I'm able and will have a look at the Knujon project, but will probably start giving more time to my filters and blacklists.

Thanks again.

[digp]

Originally Posted by hadaso

I continue to report all the local spam I get. I don't report all the spam I get as it's too much work.

Complete utter and pointless waste of time.

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by digp

Complete utter and pointless waste of time.

Why do you think so?

[Scott Kitterman]

Originally Posted by hadaso

You (and I) are not reporting to Spamcop but rather using Spamcop to report to the adminstrators of networks where spam originated (or that host the spammers' websites).

I don't think that SpamCop has been effective in reducing the amount of spam I get. I don't believe most spam reported is acted upon (I see that spammers are still hosted after I reported many times and for many years). I hope some of the recipients of reports find it useful.

I got one response for an administrator I reported to that confirmed that an IP address I reported is actually an infected PC. I reported this to the Israeli police computer crime unit (it's an identifiable Israeli spammer selling botnet based services). They investigated but said there's not much they can do with an email report from a sysadmin in another country.

I continue to report all the local spam I get. I don't report all the spam I get as it's too much work.

I think what's really needed is a reporting system that can connect spam recipients that can identify the advertisers with PC owners whose infected PCs that were used to send the spam. This would provide people with infected PCs with evidence that can be used to sue those who abused their PCs.

Actually you are reporting both to Spamcop and whoever they relay the message to. Spamcop maintains a block list based on these reports. IIRC, the default for new account creation now is to only use data for the blocklist and not to report it back to the sender. This is becuase, as you say, the feedback reporting is not very effective. Spamcops RBL, however, is. It is however agressive and they don't recommend rejecting just based on their RBL. I use it for spam scoring within Spamassassin very effectively.