Links

Tracking, Reporting, and General Questions

* start here to learn how to trace and report UCE
Abuse.net: Was that postmaster@whatever.whoever? or abuse? Sign up with the abuse.net forwarding service. "She knows, so you needn't." Check out the other material, including Boycott Internet Spam
bitch-list.net: Lists of contact addresses for domains whose administrators are not responsive to abuse reports sent to postmaster@ or abuse@.
Combattere lo spam: Come colpire gli spammer al portafogli: How to Hit the Spammers in the Wallet -- Massimo Cavazzini recounts the steps taken to get compensation from a spammer via the 'Garante' (Italian Data Protection Authority)
Dog ate my DELETE key...: Exterminating junk email -- last updated 1998-02-01 but the essays are still worth reading
Dr. Ackermann: Ausführliche Informationen über Spam, Spamming, und welche rechtlichen Möglichkeiten bestehen, sich gegen Spam zur Wehr zu setzen.
Email abuse FAQ - from AOL
EmailAbuse.org: Dedicated to informing users concerning all forms of email abuse -- harassment, Denial of Service attacks, spamming, virus infections -- and providing them with the tools both to avoid becoming victims and to fight back against Email Abusers
E-Privacy: Maintained by the Department of Communications Science at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) - this site includes material relating to privacy on the 'net (including the issue of UCE) - main language is Flemish, but some material is available in French and English as well
The fight against spam: A statistical look at what kind of UBE arrives at our host's own website
Halte au Spam! - "Pour en finir avec le spam!": Informations et recommandations de la Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL)
How do spammers harvest email addresses?: An excellent listing and description of various techniques used in address gathering - by Uri Raz
howtofightspam.com: Geared towards newcomers who are overwhelmed by spam, who want to receive less of it but have no idea of how to start
How to Get Rid of Junk Mail, Spam, and Telemarketers
Junkbusters: One of the world's most comprehensive collections of information about junk messages and how to stop them
Moja prywatna wojna przeciwko spamerom: Marcin Frankowski's tales from the front - why spam is bad, what to do about it, and what not to do
The Multi-lingual Spam Notifications Project - English templates
The Netizen's Guide to Spam, Abuse, and Internet Advertising
nospam-pl.net - Prawo i obyczaje kontra spam. Walka ze spamem i obrona przed nim: Excellent, very comprehensive site in Polish concerning many aspects of email abuse, what it is, what forms it takes, how to protect oneself and one's own mailbox, what rights and obligations exist under national legislation, and tips on ethical e.marketing
Open Relay Notifications - in several languages
Pagina Antispam in italiano: Leonardo Collinelli's "Small guide to self-defence from more common forms of net abuse"
PISA (Providing Information about Internet Security Aspects) Spam Page: Comprehensive information on all aspects of the problem of Unsolicited Bulk Email; Op Vlaams, En Français
Pros and Cons of Spam Control: An overview of the arguments for and against an ISP implementing filtering schemes to protect its users from the flood of UBE
Sam Spade, Spam hunter: Lots of web tools for tracking down spammers, including the The ACME address digger. Brought to you as a public service by Blighty Design.
Spam Address FAQ: How spammers obtain people's mail addresses so they can spam them, and what you can do to stop that from happening.
SpamAnti.net: Information and news in French and English
spamcombat@bouissou.net: Liste de discussion destinée aux utilisateurs d'Internet désireux de combattre le "spam", c'est-à-dire la réception massive par e-mail de messages publicitaires non sollicités; Version Custom de Spambouncer qui incorpore diverses fonctionnalités supplémentaires et des améliorations, ainsi que la francisation des messages générés et de la documentation jointe
Spamcop: A Web-based application for parsing headers and identifying reporting addresses.
Spam Defined: "Internet spam is one or more unsolicited messages, sent or posted as part of a larger collection of messages, all having substantially identical content."
spamfaq.net: The FAQs about Unsolicited Bulk Email: Home of the FAQ for the newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.email, the documents aim to answer questions about Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE), also known as 'email spam'
Spam Links: Everything you didn't want to have to know about spam
Spam-Mail und Faxwerbung: Wie Sie sich gegen unerwünschte Werbung per Mail oder Fax wehren können
Stop Spam FAQ: Abused by e-mail advertising? Here are legitimate and legal ways of doing something about it!
UXN Spam Combat: A spam tracing site with powerful online tools, now used by roughly 1000 people each day to track and terminate spammers. Start here to learn how to trace and report UCE
Wat Is Spamen?: General information on Unsolicited Bulk Email in Flemish.

Top

Ethical E.Marketing

BadAds - Email: A consumer's reference for what to do about unwelcome email advertising
Business View of Spam: How to conduct an advertising campaign on the Internet without abuse
Conseils et Information sur l'économie de l'e-mail: French-language site offering advice on permission-based email marketing
E-Marketing, Arbeitskreise und Projektgruppen: The German Multimedia Association on various aspects of e.marketing, including the use of email
e-Revolution Issues: Unsolicited Commercial Email: Promoting awareness of the problem of UCE as part of the Electronic Commerce initiative of the European Commission's Information Society Promotion Office
Tasty spam?: A discussion of permission-based email marketing strategies
whyspamisbad.com: Targeted towards the novice email marketer, explains why spamming is bad and wrong... not just from the perspective of protecting privacy or respecting private property; but why spamming will result in less positive customer contact than a responsibly-maintained confirmed opt-in list
Why Unsolicited Bulk E-mail is Bad Business: Linda Formichelli explodes several myths about UBE and gives pointers to ethical and profitable alternatives

Top

Campaigning and Advocacy

CAUCE: The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email. Set up in the USA, this is the parent organisation of EuroCAUCE.
CAUBE.AU: The Coalition Against Unsolicited Bulk Email, Australia. Our sister organisation Down Under.
CAUCE Canada: The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, Canada. The latest addition to the 'family' in The Great White North.
CAUCE India: The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, India. Dedicated to stopping spam in India before it develops into a crisis.
CAUCE Nederland: Tegen ongewenste email
@SPAM Brasil: Movimento Brasileiro de Combate ao Spam
Antispam: Campaign and information in Czech about spamming in the Czech Republic and abroad.
ANTISPAM.RU: Antispam Project in Russia. An initiative of Zenon N.S.P. to gather and present information in Russian concerning spam and the struggle against it in Russia and abroad.
AUI - Spanish Association of Internet Users: Rompe las Cadenas - campaña contra el Correo Basura
Collectif Anti Spam: a pour but d'informer et de lutter contre le spam; met à disposition des internautes un grand nombre de ressources
e-Consumers Club of Sofia (Bulgaria): Protecting 'e-shoppers' from fraud, including UCE or 'spam'
FABEL: Foreningen for Ansvarlig Brug af EmaiL - Danish Association for the Responsible Use of Email
F.R.E.E.: Forum for Responsible and Ethical Email
Fighters4web: un'associazione di volontari con l'obiettivo di educare al corretto uso della rete; "è chiunque voglia una Internet senza abusi..."
I.D.I. Interessenverband Deutsches Internet e.V.: Informations- Schutzgemeinschaft der Internetnutzer in Deutschland; u.a. sammelt und sichert Beweismaterial über Verstöße durch Spamming und stellt dies gegen Verursacher zur Verfügung
NetMag AntiSpam CENTRAL: Information in Czech about spamming and what to do about it
Outlaw Junk E-mail Now!
Privacy.net: Information on how to protect your privacy with demonstrations of tracking, cookies, and what information can be gathered about you, the user. Including me@privacy.net "stealth address"
The SpamCon Foundation: Antispam help for recipients ("Help! I got spam!") and marketers ("I want to do email marketing right.")
Stop Unsolicited Mass E-Mail Advertisements!
Stimm Gegen Spam! / Vote Against Spam!: Site of the Anti-spam Petition initiated by politik-digital and c't magazin signed by nearly 40000 netizens from all EU member countries
Turkish Anti-Spam Organisation
YASI: Yugoslav Anti-Spam Initiative

Top

Policy Documents

Legislative proposals for a new Regulatory Framework for electronic communications: Including COM(2000) 385 Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector
Legal Framework for the development of Electronic Commerce: A collection of documents relating to the EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL DIRECTIVE on certain legal aspects of electronic commerce in the internal market; [including the final Directive 2000/31/EC]
Directive 2002/58/EC: of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications)
DIRECTIVE 97/66/EC: OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 15 December 1997 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector; (Repealed by Directive 2002/58/EC)
Directive 97/7/EC: of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the Protection of Consumers in respect of Distance Contracts
Directive 95/46/EC: of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data; Implementation in EU Member States
WP28: Opinion 1/2000 of the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party: on certain data protection aspects of electronic commerce - see index for copies of Working Party documents in other languages
WP36: Opinion 7/2000 of the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party: On the European Commission Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector - see index for copies of Working Party documents in other languages
WP37: Working Document of the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party: Privacy on the Internet - An integrated EU Approach to On-line Data Protection - see index for copies of Working Party documents in other languages
Basic Mailing List Management Principles for Preventing Abuse: From MAPS. (This gives pointers on how mailing lists should be run. Anything else is just messing about.)
BEUC (Office of European Consumers Associations) Position Papers: Initial Comments on the working document on the review of the Directive on data protection in the e-communications sector (Directive 97/66); BEUC's position on the European Commission Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in electronic communications of July 2000, COM (2000) 385.
Definition für akzeptables E-Mail-Marketing: From the German Multimedia Association
Electronic Mailing and Data Protection: Report of the (French) National Data Processing and Liberties Commission
Financial Services:: amended proposal for a Directive on distance marketing
JANET Acceptable Use Policy: JANET is the Joint Academic NETwork in the UK
LINX Best Current Practice for combating Unsolicited Bulk Email: from the London Internet Exchange
MessageMedia's Resource Centre: A collection of White Papers, Case Studies, and Essays on Permission Marketing. Be sure to have a look at Sometimes the Messenger Should be Shot: Building a Spam-free E-mail Marketing Program
Le Publipostage Électronique et la Protection des Données Personnelles: Rapport de la Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés
Report on e-Commerce: the Policy Requirements: From the Irish Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
RFC 2142: Mailbox Names for Common Services, Roles and Functions
RFC 2505: Anti-Spam Recommendations for SMTP MTAs
RFC 2635: DON'T SPEW, A Set of Guidelines for Mass Unsolicited Mailings and Postings
RFC 3098: How to Advertise Responsably Using E-Mail and Newsgroups
or - how NOT to $$$$$ MAKE ENEMIES FAST! $$$$$
RIPE 206: Good Practice for combating Unsolicited Bulk Email; The LINX Best Current Practice is now incorporated in a RIPE document.
Standards for Net Use (in Russian): from the (Russian) Open Forum of Internet Service Providers
Technical and Legal Approaches to Unsolicited Electronic Mail: by David E. Sorkin, Assistant Professor of Law, Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law, The John Marshall Law School (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
Unsolicited Commercial Communication and Data Protection: a study prepared for the Internal Market Directorate General of the European Commission

Top

Maintenance of Network Infrastructure

EuroISPA: Pan-European association of Internet Services Providers' associations in EU countries
London Internet Exchange: ISP Peering in UK, exchanging news and views as well as IP packets.
Mail Abuse Protection System (MAPS): Education (Transport Security Initiative) and Enforcement (Realtime Blackhole List)
MAPS Relay Spam Stopper: (Formerly RRSS) - listing of open servers used to relay UBE. Only those servers already abused by spammers are tested and listed.
openrbl.org: Overview and lookup of IP-based blocking lists and other resources
Open Relay DataBase: Lists servers open to third-party relaying - site appears in Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Polish, Spanish, and Japanese
Open Relay Black List: Lists servers open to third-party relaying, based on own observations, incoming reports, and postings in news.admin.net-abuse.sightings
OsiruSoft's Open Relay Spam Stopper: An automated system designed to protect its users from open relay and Direct-to-MX UCE
Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE): European Network and Top Level Domain coordination. Including Anti-Spam Working Group.
RFC-Ignorant.org: Listings of sites whose administrators think that the rules of the Internet don't apply to them.
RRSS: Radparker Relay Spam Stopper - now MAPS Relay Spam Stopper.
spambag.org: List of networks considered to be repeatedly causing or supporting abusive behaviour or practices, or which are likely to do so -- maintained according to formal guidelines
The Spamhaus Project: List of known Spam Support Services, including ROKSO, the Register of Known Spam Operations
spamsites.org: List of sites offering software or services associated with sending Unsolicited Bulk Email
SPEWS - Spam Prevention Early Warning System: A list of areas on the Internet that several system administrators, ISP postmasters, and other service providers have compiled as known sources or transit points of abusive traffic
Survey: Blacklists Compared: Survey results for all known public IP-based DNS blacklists. [Several of these are listed above.] Lookups done on connecting IP addresses
ip4r (DNSBL-style) DNS lookups: An overview and comparison of various databases used to block or tag unwanted or suspect email traffic

Top

'Special' Email Services

This is just a small sampling of all the available services out there. For more options, have a look at the Computers:Abuse:Spam:Filtering category in the Open Directory.

Emailias: Lets users create a unique disposable email alias for each web site. Allows user to determine where a spammer obtained an address and includes the ability to turn the alias off.
Filter-Me: A forwarding service which allows users to set their own filters for e-mail, so each user can create multiple addresses and have different filtering rules for each one.
Mailshell: Allows the user to create a custom domain and then use it to make up disposable email addresses.
SafeMail: Using SafeMail is as easy as using a "mailto:" link on your webpages.
Sneakemail: A free e-mail service that allows you to generate many different addresses for using when contacting companies and the like online. If you use a different address for each contact, you can determine if a particular company starts sending you spam.
Spam Motel: Another free e-mail service that allows you to generate multiple addresses and give a separate address to each person you contact to see who sells it.
Spamex: "Gives you absolute control over your email." Provides anonymous e-mail addresses to its users and the ability to create new ones as needed.
0spam.com: Offers free whitelisted POP email.

Please note that this list is provided for informational purposes only. We do not endorse any of the products or services listed here; in fact, we encourage you to look for alternatives before settling for any of these.

Top

Newsgroups

comp.org.cauce: A robomoderated forum for discussing matters pertaining to the Coalition(s) against Unsolicited Commercial or Broadcast/Bulk Email
de.admin.net-abuse.mail: German-language forum for discussing email abuse in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
dk.admin.netmisbrug: Danish net.abuse newsgroup
news.admin.net-abuse.policy: Discussion of how to combat spam and other net.abuse
news.admin.net-abuse.sightings: Post spams here
news.admin.net-abuse.usenet: Discuss Usenet spams, otherwise known as ECP/EMP
news.admin.net-abuse.email: Discuss E-mail spams (UBE or UCE)
news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins: Announcements of spams cancelled and spammers bounced
news.admin.net-abuse.misc: Anything else about abuse of the Internet
pl.news.mordplik: Polish "killfile" (="mordplik") originally dealing with Usenet abuse, later email abuse
sfnet.viestinta.roskapostit: Finnish net.abuse group

Top

[ Feedback | Main ]