Stop Spam | Blacklists - are you the victim or the criminal?

Blacklists - are you the victim or the criminal?

A blacklist, as the name implies, is a list of people or companies who have met with the disapproval of others. In the online world a blacklist refers to those people who have been marked as responsible for generating spam in a very big way. Blacklists are also known as blocklists.

Blacklists are used to combat spam in a very specific way. When spam is reported to one of the relevant spam fighting organizations the IP address the spam originated from is added to a banned or blacklisted IP addresslist. An IP address is the unique location of you or your website on the internet - think of it as your "home address" online. To put it simply every www.domain.com Internet address has a matching IP address. Any email coming from your website domain also has a corresponding IP address. If your IP address is present on a blacklist then you're potentially wasting your time sending email to customers.

Why are you wasting your time? Modern spam blockers come with the most common blacklists installed and/or allow you to import updated blacklists into your spam blocker. This allows to you block a huge amount of spam but you may also, potentially, block legitimate email. Blacklists are not foolproof.

There are two types of IP address:

Dynamic

- changes every time you connect to the Internet. Most commonly used for dialup Internet access. Spammers love these because they're very hard to track and 100% disposable.

Fixed/Static
- All websites, most large companies and some individuals use fixed IP addresses. This can cause huge problems if they're reported for spamming.

When an IP address (dynamic or fixed ) is reported for sending spam it's added to a blacklist. There are three different types of blacklists:

Temporary

An IP address placed on a temporary blacklist will have email coming from that IP address blocked for several hours.
After a few hours the offending IP address is removed from the blacklist.

Permanent

When an IP address is added to a permanent blacklist any email server configured to block email from this list will never receive email from that range of IP addresses again.

Comprehensive

This is the most damaging of blacklists. Not only does it block a single IP address it also blocks the IP addresses next to it. For example if the IP address 192.156.66.67 was added to a comprehensive blacklist then all IP addresses close to 192.156.66.67 will also be blocked. This can be a huge problem for those website owners using virtual hosting because if your host has ever appeared on a blacklist then you're also on the same blacklist, by default, because of the shared hosting from the same IP range.

It's important for all website owners to check whether or not they're on a blacklist. You'll need your IP address (available from your webhost) and you can check your blacklist status at: www.mail-abuse.org/cgi-bin/lookup

Blacklists are a necessary evil due to the volume of spam being sent each day but are not an exact science. Take a few moments from your day and ensure that your website or email address is not being blocked.

Stop Spam Related eBooks

Spam Bully - Email spam filter for Outlook and Outlook Express
End your spam nightmare and make email enjoyable again by keeping your Inbox free of annoying spam!

Email marketing software and anti spam software from Spam Nullifier
Spam Nullifier keeps junk mails out of your inbox, stops spam before it gets to you - Never filters e-mail from friends and family - and blocks offensive words and pictures. It is a simple, yet powerful utility to make your daily life more productive.

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The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was supposed to eliminate spam email. This federal spam law that became effective January 1, 2004, was passed by Congress to get rid of junk email. So why didn't the law eliminate spam and why is it so difficult to stop it? Still today...
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1. Ignore Spam Email Do not open an unsolicited email. Spammers are just playing a numbers game. They simply send out like a million emails and hope that at least a third of them stick. Spammers try to gather as many email addresses as they can. They don't even know if any of the addresses are active. It is when you answer them that they know whether or not it i...
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Using Whitelists to Fight Spam Blacklists - are you the victim or the criminal? Bayesian Spam Filters Explained Are You Really Anti Spam? Anti-Spam Software Learning To Deal With Junk Email 5 Tips For An Unbreakable Password The Trouble With Spam Is.... The 4 Ws of Spam The Future For Spam	Blacklists - are you the victim or the criminal? A blacklist, as the name implies, is a list of people or companies who have met with the disapproval of others. In the online world a blacklist refers to those people who have been marked as responsible for generating spam in a very big way. Blacklists are also known as blocklists. Blacklists are used to combat spam in a very specific way. When spam is reported to one of the relevant spam fighting organizations the IP address the spam originated from is added to a banned or blacklisted IP addresslist. An IP address is the unique location of you or your website on the internet - think of it as your "home address" online. To put it simply every www.domain.com Internet address has a matching IP address. Any email coming from your website domain also has a corresponding IP address. If your IP address is present on a blacklist then you're potentially wasting your time sending email to customers. Why are you wasting your time? Modern spam blockers come with the most common blacklists installed and/or allow you to import updated blacklists into your spam blocker. This allows to you block a huge amount of spam but you may also, potentially, block legitimate email. Blacklists are not foolproof. There are two types of IP address: Dynamic - changes every time you connect to the Internet. Most commonly used for dialup Internet access. Spammers love these because they're very hard to track and 100% disposable. Fixed/Static - All websites, most large companies and some individuals use fixed IP addresses. This can cause huge problems if they're reported for spamming. When an IP address (dynamic or fixed ) is reported for sending spam it's added to a blacklist. There are three different types of blacklists: Temporary An IP address placed on a temporary blacklist will have email coming from that IP address blocked for several hours. After a few hours the offending IP address is removed from the blacklist. Permanent When an IP address is added to a permanent blacklist any email server configured to block email from this list will never receive email from that range of IP addresses again. Comprehensive This is the most damaging of blacklists. Not only does it block a single IP address it also blocks the IP addresses next to it. For example if the IP address 192.156.66.67 was added to a comprehensive blacklist then all IP addresses close to 192.156.66.67 will also be blocked. This can be a huge problem for those website owners using virtual hosting because if your host has ever appeared on a blacklist then you're also on the same blacklist, by default, because of the shared hosting from the same IP range. It's important for all website owners to check whether or not they're on a blacklist. You'll need your IP address (available from your webhost) and you can check your blacklist status at: www.mail-abuse.org/cgi-bin/lookup Blacklists are a necessary evil due to the volume of spam being sent each day but are not an exact science. Take a few moments from your day and ensure that your website or email address is not being blocked.

Stop Spam Related eBooks Spam Bully - Email spam filter for Outlook and Outlook Express End your spam nightmare and make email enjoyable again by keeping your Inbox free of annoying spam! Email marketing software and anti spam software from Spam Nullifier Spam Nullifier keeps junk mails out of your inbox, stops spam before it gets to you - Never filters e-mail from friends and family - and blocks offensive words and pictures. It is a simple, yet powerful utility to make your daily life more productive.

Stop Spam Related Articles Four Ways To Eliminate Spam The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was supposed to eliminate spam email. This federal spam law that became effective January 1, 2004, was passed by Congress to get rid of junk email. So why didn't the law eliminate spam and why is it so difficult to stop it? Still today... Continue Reading... Six Tips to Get Rid of Spam Email 1. Ignore Spam Email Do not open an unsolicited email. Spammers are just playing a numbers game. They simply send out like a million emails and hope that at least a third of them stick. Spammers try to gather as many email addresses as they can. They don't even know if any of the addresses are active. It is when you answer them that they know whether or not it i... Continue Reading...
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