I have a question and I am wondering if other web host have experienced this.

In the last month I have had 5 new sites that all turned out to be spammers.

Site automatically terminated!

Well, I take the time to call the phone number provided and I get the customer on the phone, with the name provided, it is them.

I explain to them why their site was down and they tell me they had no idea what they were doing was wrong, that they bought a "Opt-In email list"

I tell them that they were scammed.

Now I am thinking, these people are lying to me or they have no clue.

The all seemed to be newbies at this whole bulk email thing.

I even mention if they read my user agreement, we all know most do not read every detail, that I did not allow bulk email, they all respond, "We did not see that part"

Most spammers I have run across (the pros) use stolen credit cards, and give all false info, but that is not the case with the last 5 sites I have closed, I even searched their phone # at anywho.com and sure enough their name and address pop up.

Any thoughts on this?

That's a sticky one.

There are places people can go to register to receive emails (and other promo material) from companies. Presumably these places collect and rent/sell the list of names.

If your users obtained their list from such a company that doesn't seem like spam to me (the people on the list opted-in).

Just sending out a large mailing isn't spam IMO. It comes down to the source of the addresses and that's where it gets gray.

I have thought about that to, but then I get a slew of people writing me "Hey stop your spammer"

My user agreement still says I don't allow bulk email.

From the amount of bounces I got and the complaints, I get the feeling the opt-in list were bogus.

Originally posted by ljprevo
I have thought about that to, but then I get a slew of people writing me "Hey stop your spammer"

One thing I learned very early in the net business is that what people claim and what is real don't always mesh.

There can be dozens of good reasons why someone complains but the complaint isn't factual.

For example:

- The person may have signed up for such a list and forgot about it.

- The person may have accidentally signed up (like when you fill out the application for some forums or info web sites) and didn't realize it.

- Some people share accounts (like a hubby and wife) and someone else on the account signed up the email addr.

- Some people have poor communication skills. Rather than just ask to be off the list they automaticlaly go for the throat and complain.

- One of your customer's competitors may be trying to make trouble for them (don't ever think this doesn't happen!)

IMO, if the customer obtained the list in good faith from a source they reasonably believed was legit and they have some REMOVE message in their email, I'd say the customer is not guilty.

It's a tough call to make. You can't jeopardize all your other customers for the sake of one customer. OTOH, anyone can make any kind of complaint and guilt by accusation isn't fair either. That's why most hosts just take the no bulk mailing stance and not deal with this. Hopefully the courts and Congress would give some direction but given the political energy the topic carries I doubt any leadership will come. :(

You can always check out:
news.admin.net-abuse.email
to see if said person has a habit of spamming

Many times you can tell from the domain name they use. Although recently there has been a rash of emails coming from variations of pm0.net