Charity caught in anti-spam crossfire

By Matthew Broersma, ZDNet.co.uk, 30 August, 2002 15:22

NEWS

A religious charity in London recently discovered first-hand the dangers that can accompany new measures to stem the tide of junk email, when the organisation's site was yanked offline without notice. The incident highlights a growing problem on today's Internet: how to ensure that legitimate emails and Web operations are not consigned to the dustbin along with Nigerian money-transfer scams and porn advertisements. The Lutheran Council of Great Britain discovered last week that its site had disappeared, after a user contacted the charity. The council's Internet service provider, Netcetera, said it had received a report of junk email originating from the charity, and had promptly switched the Web site off. What makes the case unusual is that the spam report was filed automatically, without any human intervention, and the ISP took action without investigating whether the claim held water. However, industry observers say Internet users will have to get used to such mistakes, as increased automation is the only way service providers can hope to deal with the current epidemic of junk email, or spam. Mistakes are occurring more frequently. In July, for example, SpamCop listed the main email hub for BT as a spam originator, causing a large number of emails to disappear. In the Lutheran Council's case, the spam report was all the more baffling because it was triggered by a seemingly innocuous email sent upon request to a prospective boarder at the organisation's hostel. The email triggered a response from a service called SpamCop, which is designed to send complaints to the ISP from which spam appears to originate. Still a mystery, however, is how a solicited letter offering a place in a religious hostel could be construed as junk mail. One clue might be that in the past year, as junk email volumes increased 200 percent, spiritual-related mailings were the fastest-growing category. "Any reasonable person would have concluded from the content of the message that this was not spam," said Reverend Tom Bruch, the council's general secretary. When the spam report, which contained the URL of the hostel Web page, reached Netcetera, the site was taken down. Bruch noted that the council still had the ability to send emails as normal. Returning the site to normal operation was more difficult: Netcetera first required the email's intended recipient to confirm that he had asked for the letter. Altogether, the site was offline for about seven days. SpamCop said that the notifications generated for Web site hosts are not intended as conclusive proof that the Web site owner is responsible for spam. "The ISP receiving the report must make a determination as to whether the spam really looks as if it was sent by the Web master," the company says on its Web site. Netcetera sees such reports in a different light, however. The ISP said its policy is to shut down sites reported for spam, and puts the burden on Web site owners to prove that the report is wrong. In any case, most ISPs do not have the option of investigating, according to Matthew Hare, managing director of business Web host Community Internet. "If I were a consumer ISP with tens of thousands of customers, I might not be in a position to do that," he said. Hare said that despite such mishaps, the positive aspects of automated spam tools far outweigh the negatives. "Yes, you get some false positives, but the software on the whole tends to be very effective," he said.

For everything Internet-related, from the latest legal and policy-related news, to domain name updates, see ZDNet UK's Internet News Section. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Talkback

Gee, what a surprise.

This kind of thing hardly ever happens. Does it?

Enthusiastic supporters of antispam laws stridenly assure me that no innocent party will suffer from misuse of the antispam laws.

Yeah, right.

Oh, but this is England. This kind of misuse of the judicial system never happens in the U.S. Does it?

via Facebook 19 December, 2003 18:03

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

I agree with the previous commenter wholeheartedly. I couldn't say it better myself. This is very 'Big Brother'. And while I agree with protecting...

49 minutes ago by UnderINK on European e-identity plan to be unveiled this month

Nice to see that Turing's idea of a general purpose computer doing once-hardware-powered tasks in software is now universal ;-) Mary

6 hours ago by Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe on Software with everything

seriously now. I've only bothered to read a small bit of the comments. do me and the rest of the world a favour. stop saying it does not work or...

10 hours ago by Jason Burchell via Facebook on Music industry negotiating over 24-bit downloads

Read about it and weep, John Donahoe ... In addition to Visa’s V.me, there is now MasterCard’s PayPass digital wallet soon to arrive; another...

14 hours ago by Philip Charles Cohen via Facebook on PayPal takes phone-based payments to the high street

Leslie Satenstein : Where have you ever seen Mozilla even mention this? Firefox is the most popular browser in the GNU/Linux OS, so I don't see...

15 hours ago by apexwm on Firefox rapid release improves Fedora Linux

SHleG: Do you remember building a clockwork scorpion kit (I'm pretty sure I have a photo of it somewhere) — I think it was called something like...

17 hours ago by songmaster on Software with everything

Good I love Yahoo! Their search engine is getting better than Google as of late. I find more of what I want on the first page, and usually within...

17 hours ago by Chris Wortman via Facebook on Linux Mint 13 ramps up for KDE release

openhgs has made the point for Windows 8 multiple monitors without realising it! With Windows 7 you have to switch the mouse and so your focus...

19 hours ago by PatrickG on Windows 8 could speed multi-monitor uptake

Mozilla has threatened to stop supporting Linux. I guess that UBUNTU is going with another browser. I indicated that if Mozilla stops supporting...

20 hours ago by Leslie Satenstein via Facebook on Firefox rapid release improves Fedora Linux

Much as I abhor Microsoft's licensing practices, this is almost certainly down to purchasing IT equipment via 3rd party consultants - you get the...

21 hours ago by Andy Bolstridge via Facebook on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT

@openhgs Windows users have had multiple desktops since Linus started writing Linux. They just haven't shipped as standard because not enough...

2 days ago by Jack Schofield on Windows 8 could speed multi-monitor uptake

@Phil at Cloud4 What, Microsoft gets £1,200 per PC and £1,622 per server? Gosh, I'm amazed....

2 days ago by Jack Schofield on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT

You guys have no idea what is going on at Autonomy. Autonomy could have been a much more profitable organization. The sales operations at Autonomy...

2 days ago by craigsc on HP cuts 27,000 staff as Autonomy chief Lynch leaves

How does this impact on dual or multi booting? Seems to me to more or less prohibit this, from Windows 8 anyway. Will Grub 2 recognise Windows 8,...

2 days ago by Moley on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround

I don't understand why there cannot be a slight pause during the boot process so the user can press a key. Many operating systems do this, even if...

2 days ago by apexwm on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround

You can now buy the Xi3 modular computer in the UK at http://www.ocdistribution.com . This can be bought with the Tand3m software, pricing and...

2 days ago by Gavin Goodman on CES 2012: Xi3 microSERV3R

I agree: Mike Lynch can clearly build a business and manage strategy. I suspect the exit of Mike is more likely the end of a planned handover...

2 days ago by Phil at Cloud4 on HP cuts 27,000 staff as Autonomy chief Lynch leaves

This is unbeleivable government wastage with only one winner... Microsoft 1 - Tax payer Nil!

2 days ago by Phil at Cloud4 on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT

So what do you do when you can't boot into windows? Why can't I just hold Shift while I power up instead of having to boot into windows and click a...

2 days ago by Mispam on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround

I've also seen that Mac OS X for Intel machines is supposed to run in VirtualBox, which would also be a nice solution. I've never tried it though.

2 days ago by apexwm on xTreme Triple Booting: Linux, Mac & Windows

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Charity caught in anti-spam crossfire

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Spam could soon be majority of email

Spam filter: A boon or a bomb?

Legit email caught in anti-spam crossfire

Citrix to deliver Windows desktops from the cloud

Talkback

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Citrix to deliver Windows desktops from the cloud

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Senior Business Analyst

Technical Project Manager

Software Support Engineer

Inside ZDNet UK

Indoor navigation coming to a mobile near you soon

Software with everything

Asus Transformer Pad TF300T

How IT is ganging up on organised cybercrime

HTC One V: First take

SharePoint deployment: The final chapter

Ten IT jobs to save up for those rare lulls

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Business of IT / IT Strategy

Charity caught in anti-spam crossfire

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Talkback

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features