This bunch are using our company email address (obviously obtained
from our domain records - we don't give it out) without our
permission.  They appear to have distributed it far and wide to
complete and utter scumbags who are forcing us to pay to download
their useless HTML for products we don't want and most definitely DID
NOT 'Opt-in' for.  A wide variety of crud-merchants appear to use this
unverified list.  Their unsubscribe
links always return 'Access Denied'and their IP address/headers most
often appear to be bogus as well.  From the web I notice we are by no
means alone in this experience with this particular list.

Who is responsible for this list?  Has anyone ever successfully got
themselves removed from it?  We want them strung from the yardarm at
dawn.

---

Request for Question Clarification by wlk115-ga on 01 Aug 2002 23:30 PDT

What country are you in? If you are in the USA which state?

Dear Cathquestions, 

Spam is like a disease (I am also sick, join our support group :),
that is very hard to get rid of. You can see it by the comments.

I will first refer to your case. The "Opt-In America Mailing List" is
a known enemy - has been discussed by other victims here -
http://news.spamcop.net/pipermail/spamcop-help/2002-June/005418.html -
as you can see, they are thinking about filing a law-suit. You can see
more information on this discussion list and on how to get help here -
http://news.spamcop.net/mailman/listinfo/spamcop-help

This site claims the spammer comes from Asia, probably China:
http://www.krusty-motorsports.com/blocked-refs/bnd56.html

The first thing you have to do is to check your mailing software (is
it Lyris? something else) and its security definitions. There are not
many secure softwares out there, as the break-in into your database of
subscribers can tell. You must be sure that yours is safe, even in the
cost of getting another one, and changing the whole system. Other
safety tools can be found here -
http://weblogs.userland.com/qube/stories/storyReader$158

If you are receiving Spam: 
1. Be sure that you have a good anti-Virus and a good mail screening
system.
2. Do not answer to it, do not click on "unsubscribe" links should
they appear.
3. Report it (see instructions bellow). 

The legal path is problematic. Not all US states and not all countries
in the world have laws against spamming. If you have one (you can see
a list of states who do here - http://law.spamcon.org/), file a suit -
that is the only way you'll make them hurt.

If you don't have legal options, you can still complain to the
spammers' ISP. You can read more about it here -
Tracking Spammers - http://www.claws-and-paws.com/spam-l/tracking.html
- I won't repeat the great advices there for copyright, but they
answer your question (about tracking the b*stards) fully! For example,
you must learn to identify the *real* sender, as opposing to their
disguise as another user. You can find details on how to track
information from the *real* header here:
Fighting them - http://eddie.cis.uoguelph.ca/~tburgess/local/spam.html

If the ISP refuses to help, you can file a complaint against it here -
http://www.mail-abuse.org/rbl/

There are also organizations that try to fight spam. Some promote
legislation and lawsuits against the perpetrators. For example,
http://www.cauce.org/

This is a more of a strategic approach - see this page to understand
that you should pressure your representatives and get anti=spam
legislation. http://www.cauce.org/legislation/index.shtml
This PDF document also deals with the legislation efforts:
http://www.law.syr.edu/studentlife/pdf/fasano1.pdf

Other sites to report Spam to, and that help you fight evil: 
http://www.junkemail.org/ and http://spam.abuse.net/ 

Spamcon http://www.spamcon.org/marketers/index.shtml also have this
discussion and information for marketers, on avoiding spamming or
being spammed.

A personal user, who wants to protect him/herself against Spam, can do
this also with software and programs mentioned in this page -
http://www.ualberta.ca/CNS/Security/else.html
http://www.itservices.ubc.ca/support/tutorials/else.shtml 

My search strategy included the following: 
getting rid of spam (google and google groups) 
spam busters
anti spam 
and of course, Opt-In America Mailing List. (as one word and as
separated words).

I think that answered your questions. However, feel free to contact me
with any further clarification requests.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by cathquestions-ga on 04 Aug 2002 16:50 PDT

For wlk115-ga

We're in Australia

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 05 Aug 2002 14:56 PDT

Thanks! 
See you again in Google-Answers, we would be happy to answer *any* question!

This gives me plenty of avenues to explore and several suggestions to
follow up.  It took me hours and hours to get nowhere with this
myself, this answer contains not only possible culprits but a link to
some folks who are trying to do something about it.  Cheers, dude.

Spam's one of the hardest things to shake. #1, NEVER click on
unsubscribe. It's a trick they use to weed out all the e-mail
addresses they know have live people behind them (besides e-mails that
are no longer working, etc.) and then they target those e-mails more
heavily as well as sell those to other companies as "verified" working
e-mail addresses. For ways to get off of lists... hmmm... *shrug*

skermit-ga

Just thought I'd chime in with a little something to send a chill the
spine:

http://www.cluelessmailers.org/spamdemic/mapfullsize.html

This is a downright horrifying map, showing known relationships among
spammers, including where they get their lists from, who they sell
them to, and how they're all interrelated. Of course, it's never truly
complete, and it will likely never capture the full extent of the
problem.

It's a disturbing snapshot of a pathology that looks like any other
disease, and serves to illustrate the difficulties inherent in
stopping or containing it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to go sob quietly in a corner for
a little while.

*sniff*

Lisa.