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SPEWS Mini-FAQ

Are you listed in SPEWS?   Do you want out of SPEWS?
Do you think SPEWS is being unfair for listing you?

If so please read the following:

Disclaimer:  Note that I am not SPEWS, I don't know who is.  I do not work for SPEWS, nor do I speak for them.  This is not an official press release by SPEWS, and SPEWS didn't authorize it.  This is simply an explanation of what SPEWS is and how SPEWS works intended as an abbreviated explanation for those who may be unfamiliar with the technology, the terms, or the spam issue and wanting to stop their email from bouncing.


First of all, let's dispel the myths with a few facts about SPEWS:
 SPEWS isn't blocking anyone.
 SPEWS is NOT about open relays.

In a nutshell, the answers to your questions are this:

1) YOU aren't listed, your provider is listed. 
2) YOU can't get unlisted, ONLY your provider can get unlisted
3)  SPEWS does not take emails, send emails, or otherwise communicate other than their page.

If your provider is listed, your choices are :
A) Live with it.
B) Move
C) Get your provider to boot their spammers and the listing will eventually go away. 

THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO GET UNLISTED SO DON'T BOTHER ASKING!  CONTACT YOUR PROVIDER!  And if they claim it's something other than their own fault for ignoring complaints and continuing to harbor spammers, tell them you are leaving.  Demand a refund and take your business elsewhere. They are lying to you. 


Details:

SPEWS isn't blocking anyone.
SPEWS is just a list of IPs owned by companies who allow their connections to be used for abuse, mostly spamming.  If your provider is listed it means they are harboring spammers and ignoring complaints.  That doesn't block anything or anyone.  People and ISPs around the world who want to protect their networks, their servers, their users, or just their own box from abuse choose to use black hole "blacklists" such as SPEWS as a reference guide.  Each of these individuals and companies who choose to use SPEWS' list are doing the blocking.  If your email is bouncing based on a SPEWS listing, it's because the person or the ISP on the other end is blocking your emails, not SPEWS.

SPEWS is NOT about open relays.
If you got the idea that your email is blocked because of an open relay issue, you are most likely wrong if you were referred to SPEWS. SPEWS isn't a list of open relays.  SPEWS is a list of  IP addresses owned by providers who harbor spammers.


1)  YOU aren't listed, your provider is listed.
SPEWS doesn't list spammers.  SPEWS lists ISPs who harbor spammers.  When an ISP lets spammers abuse the world using their servers or their IPs, spews lists them.  SPEWS' users use SPEWS because they refuse to peer with companies who allow their servers and their IPs to be used to harass the rest of the planet.  If you are not spamming but your email is bouncing because of a SPEWS listing, it's because your provider values their spammers' money more than yours and is providing services to abusers even though it's costing you your connectivity. 

Sometimes spam harboring ISPs move spammers around their blocks of IPs to avoid filters.  So it's easier for others to just block the whole ISP than to waste hours on end trying to keep up with which IPs the spammer is using today. 

Furthermore, blocking only the specific IPs used by the spammers does nothing.  The spammers accept it as a part of their "business", and the ISP gets to keep their spammers and their legit customers as well.  Blocking the whole ISP, or large pieces of it, renders the ISP's IPs less valuable. This costs the ISP, and that drives up the cost of harboring spammers, and THAT's the point.  If you actually like using a spam harboring ISP, that's your choice.  But many do not want emails from you if you use those IPs.
 

2) YOU can't get unlisted, ONLY your provider can get unlisted.

Since your provider is the one blocked, only your provider can get unblocked.   All they have to do is get rid of their spammers.  If they do that, the listing will eventually go away.  If they don't do that, the listing will remain.  There is no negotiation.  No excuses are accepted, no exceptions are made.  There is only one way off and that's it.  Until it happens, nothing else will make any difference whatsoever. 

3) Spews does not take emails, send emails, or otherwise communicate other than their page.
Since there is nothing to discuss, SPEWS declined to include any method of contacting them.  Why would they?  Why should they?  Getting off SPEWS list is simple enough.  And there's nothing to discuss. 
 

If your provider is listed, your choices are :
A)  Live with it.
You can just accept the fact that your mail bounces and you have only partial connectivity.  I hope you aren't paying much.  You can use some other non blocked company for email, but that may cost a bit more.  Keep in mind that sometimes a company may eventually buckle under all the pressure and terminate a spammer yet still remain listed.   This happens when there are still other spammers the company hasn't terminated, or in some cases when the company was so terribly blatant in allowing so much abuse, that it's deemed appropriate to leave them listed for longer than usual.  It's also common when the same company gets unlisted and goes back to harboring spammers again.  It's important that abusers stay listed long enough to lose any profits they may have made from the abuse to prevent them from doing it again and again. 

B)  Move
Move to a decent provider who has IPs which aren't blocked and your email will not be bouncing. 

C) Get your provider to boot their spammers and the listing will eventually go away.
C is the hard one.  Your provider may show no interest in your complaints, but they have already ignored complaints from others.  If you can talk them into cleaning up their act, that's great!   But don't bet on it.  Beware!  Many spam friendly providers have been caught flat out lying to their non spamming customers.  They sometimes tell the victims that they have booted the spammer when they haven't.  Sometime they will say they are no longer there when they really never kicked them off or merely moved them to other IP addresses to get around some filters.  Sometimes they will get the spammer to move to some other ISP but still provide other services to them including email, DNS, etc.  Some spammers pay extra and some providers give them extra service at the expense of their other customers. 


What you should do:

Contact your ISP.  Your ISP got listed by causing problems to many other people.   ONLY your ISP can get themselves unlisted. 

If you have read all of the above and understand it, and still want to discuss the issue or learn more about fighting the abuse, then feel free to join in the discussions in the news group news.admin.net-abuse.email.  But don't post anymore "Please remove me from your list" posts.  No one in the group can remove you and there are already too many posting the same thing.  Read the group for a while prior to posting and you will get an idea of what is happening and why. 

There is one exception to all of this.  Like all humans and most machines, it's possible that spews can make a typo resulting in an incorrect entry.  Those posted to nanae seem to get proper attention but they are rare.  Don't assume your bouncing emails are because of a typo. 99.99% of the time it's not.  Find out before posting. 

Read the NANAE FAQ and the nanae "Your First Post To NANAE" FAQ.  Then grab a mallet, don your flame retardant undies, and welcome to the world of nanae.  There are a lot of other pages dealing with spamming and the FAQs point you to many of them. 

Usenet newsgroup archives are a great resource too. Use Google newsgroup archives to research what others are saying about your provider if there is any question.  Even a good provider may have a spammer sign up on occasion.  So if yours is good, you still may see a few references to spammers. The bad providers have hundreds, or even hundreds of thousands of references, and often the spammers are still there.  Many of the references may point to the newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.sightings .  Those are posted examples of spams people have received.  'Sightings' was setup for archiving spam so a that spammers and their providers can be tracked and the scope of abuse determined.  An occasional spam from a spammer using your provider doesn't prove your provider is spam friendly.  A large number of of them, particularly if the spammers are still there, does mean your provider is spam friendly. If they aren't already black hole "blacklisted" odds are they have been and/or will be. 

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