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So, every time someone receives an abuse complaint, they should have to send checksums of every email on their list? What if it's a massive mailing list by a l

So, every time someone receives an abuse complaint, they should have to send checksums of every email on their list? What if it's a massive mailing list by a large company? What if it's a fraudulent abuse complaint, just designed to get the company to waste resources?

6d0debc071 12y ago
What if the company just lies that someone's not on their lists - they'll have to turn the information over one way or the other if it's to be checked, and it may as well be in a checksum as anything else.
- devicenull 12y ago
  I've never heard of any provider making someone turn over their mailing lists. Do you have any further information about when this has occurred? Generally, when someone gets too many spam complaints, or doesn't handle them well, they get terminated from the hosting provider.
  - 6d0debc071 12y ago
    > I've never heard of any provider making someone turn over their mailing lists. Do you have any further information about when this has occurred? --- I didn't mean to imply that was what happened. I said that they'd have to if it's to be checked. My thoughts were that you're either going to have to trust the accused spammer - in which case you can turn over the SHA of the complaining email address, and the provider can compare it to the SHA hashes of their own. Or... they're going to have to turn the list (again, preferably with the entries hashed) over to you - and then, I suppose, you'll have to trust that they're giving you a truthful list. But, either way, I don't see how the mere act of hashing the list is going to significantly alter the problems of nuisance complaints or of dealing with large lists. Hashing is a very cheap thing to do after all.
    - devicenull 12y ago
      There's not really anything you can do about an individual spam complaint, aside from telling the end user and having them remove the email from their list (aside from things that are quite obviously spam). The problem is the 'Report Spam' button is also the 'I no longer wish to receive this email' button to non-technical users. Just because you've received a spam complaint, doesn't mean that it wasn't an opt-in email. Providers never attempt to verify your email list. If you generate too many spam complaints, you get terminated. It's not feasible for a third party to get a copy of your mailing list, then somehow evaluate how legitimate it is.

6d0debc071 12y ago

What if the company just lies that someone's not on their lists - they'll have to turn the information over one way or the other if it's to be checked, and it may as well be in a checksum as anything else.

devicenull 12y ago
I've never heard of any provider making someone turn over their mailing lists. Do you have any further information about when this has occurred? Generally, when someone gets too many spam complaints, or doesn't handle them well, they get terminated from the hosting provider.
- 6d0debc071 12y ago
  > I've never heard of any provider making someone turn over their mailing lists. Do you have any further information about when this has occurred? --- I didn't mean to imply that was what happened. I said that they'd have to if it's to be checked. My thoughts were that you're either going to have to trust the accused spammer - in which case you can turn over the SHA of the complaining email address, and the provider can compare it to the SHA hashes of their own. Or... they're going to have to turn the list (again, preferably with the entries hashed) over to you - and then, I suppose, you'll have to trust that they're giving you a truthful list. But, either way, I don't see how the mere act of hashing the list is going to significantly alter the problems of nuisance complaints or of dealing with large lists. Hashing is a very cheap thing to do after all.
  - devicenull 12y ago
    There's not really anything you can do about an individual spam complaint, aside from telling the end user and having them remove the email from their list (aside from things that are quite obviously spam). The problem is the 'Report Spam' button is also the 'I no longer wish to receive this email' button to non-technical users. Just because you've received a spam complaint, doesn't mean that it wasn't an opt-in email. Providers never attempt to verify your email list. If you generate too many spam complaints, you get terminated. It's not feasible for a third party to get a copy of your mailing list, then somehow evaluate how legitimate it is.