We got a little SPAMMER on one of our servers lately and was just wondering how to deal with it.

We have been burned by Spammers before and then we adopted a Zero tolerance policy toward SPAM. We have it in our AUP, and a seperate section for it to make it clear that we don't accept it.

A client signed up 10 days ago and he started right away sending tons of spam emails.

We got many complaints about that client, so I logged in into his account just to make sure HE WAS the one in question, and to my surprise, all his account was files filled with forms for people to fill.

The forms that you already got (am sure) trying to sell you something or fill-in for a loan....and the removal email request goes nowhere.

Anyway, that account was cancelled and here is the client response..

"Please do not charge my credit card and refund me back my
money. If you charge me without my authorization I will charge
you back and you will pay back the money to me after you lose
your credibility with your merchant account company.
"

We have a section in our SPAM page about charging Spammers $25 fees for any incident which they had to agree on before signing up..

Should we give back that guy even his first monthly fee for hosting??

Any ideas are appreciated..
:)

If you have stated in your AUP and is agreed to when the client first signed up, then you should fight it. If you dont fight it, then what the hell is your AUP for?

I dont think you should refund him..........especially since he is a spammer. (and we hosts know we hate spammers and its time for us to take revenge on ALL of them)

we should even start a Spammer Database for hosts to keep these guys out from ever getting hosting from any provider.

arghhh spammers just make me real mad.

LOL, I wonder who will win in the court?

A spammer or the host?

SPAMMING is illegal period. Tell him you'll report ALL his information to the proper authorities. I want to see what he'll do then.

I'll tell you what he'll do, laugh in your face and still get his money back. Read your merchant agreement, and the MC.VISA part specifically - you have no rights w/out a signature....suck it up and move on - and for the naive amongst us - you spend the legal $$ it would require to do the right thing and then talk to me.

So no contract is legal without a signature?

By the way, by Spammers do you mean someone who gets an account with you for the sole reason of mass-e-mailing people about getting ripply muscles and taking out loans for free etc.? Why do they need to sign up with a host?

Somewhat off topic, but we get these a**holes all the time. We just write them off. Our merchant provider - Nova - doesn't charge chargeback fees, so it is worth it for us to send in a templated dispute response.

If it turns out that they are using real addresses, then use your collection agency. We recently started doing this for those scumbags who host, forget about it, and think because they didn't cancel with us, we should have read there minds and canceled for them months ago. These idiots chargeback to the date they feel they didn't use the service anymore. Sometimes 6 months. Fortunately for us - they use real addresses. They win the dispute. Great. We add $25.00 for EACH chargeback. We add a $25.00 collection fee. Then we turn it over to collections. Anything over $100 is put on their credit report. Funny how quickly they call when they are trying to buy a house a few years later. Some threaten to sue, but we keep all invoices and records stored for 5 years in case this happens. It is then on them to prove they canceled service.

DannyITR, Actually that guy had made templates for selling that stuff.. so he needed to host those pages.. then he emailed tons of JUNK/SPAM for people to go back to his site to fill out forms or enter CC Info.

If you people (as hosts) can't stop customers from demanding and getting chargebacks, then why is it that we customers can't stop hosts from charging us month after month after we have properly cancelled our account?

If you people (as hosts) can't stop customers from demanding and getting chargebacks, then why is it that we customers can't stop hosts from charging us month after month after we have properly cancelled our account?

Simple, ask for confirmation once you cancel. If you keep getting charged, call your host. Chances are it was a billing error and they can refund it. If they do not, then sure, use a chargeback. You have proof that you canceled because you have confirmation.

I think that is differnet then being a spammer or free loader and getting charges that a host shouldn't have to refund.

I say give him a prorated refund minus the $25.00 fees for each spam, if you have a refund policy.

And dispute any chargeback. As long as you have proof, it's not hard to dispute a chargeback. Typically all we have to do is dispute it providing all the documentation that we have and then it's reversed automatically. Then the card holder has 45 days to dispute the reversal. Typically they won't if they're in the wrong and can't provide any proof.

And like umbillycord said, even if he manages to force the chargeback, it doesn't mean that you don't have a valid contract. Pass it along to a collection agency, or sue. I normally don't pass it on to a collection agency until after I give up on collecting it myself. Because you don't have to follow the same rules of contacting the delinquent as a credit agency does.

The best alternative....


We will all meet up on a certain day at the spammers door, ask him out for a little chit hact, and pour buckets of spam into his underwear....

Just a way to spam him back.


Cant use Spam against us in the court of law....its not an assault nor dangerous weapon.

Hi,

We just had another spam account and we have now started immediately terminating the account NO questions.

We send an email stating the account has been terminated pending enquiries. Usually we get no response to that, but this latest guy sent us an email saying we were on ubulk.com's list of recommended hosts!!

We then sent him an email stating our TOS ($50 per spam item) and said we were considering using our lawyers to get back $32,000!! He was very apologetic and asked if we could help him get ubulk.com shutdown. He is claiming he didnt really understand what the ubulk software did and wasnt aware it would send spam!

Oh well, we just lie in waiting for the next one......

Sort of off the topic, btu I wish there was a way to get these ICQ spammers. I am so sick of 15428972 coming on and saying, "Hi" and then 10 seconds later like clockwork, "Wanna see me naked, etc, go here". So you ICQ themback and tell them to F-off and you get the same message. I add them to my ignore list, but is there a way to get these guys?

Originally posted by brently27
Sort of off the topic, btu I wish there was a way to get these ICQ spammers. I am so sick of 15428972 coming on and saying, "Hi" and then 10 seconds later like clockwork, "Wanna see me naked, etc, go here". So you ICQ themback and tell them to F-off and you get the same message. I add them to my ignore list, but is there a way to get these guys?

If you go throught ALL the options of ICQ, NOBODY will/can contact you if you don't wish to.

Whenever you talk or think about it, it actually happens :rolleyes:
Check this thread http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36760

Sad, sad....

We just recently has a nightmare customer. First he basicly distracted us by saying he wanted his money back after we delivered his service with 100 % uptime and to problems. So we were in the process of fighting him with this and then we recieve word of spam off our servers. We check into and sure enough it was him, and guess what? He wanted his money back still! And it clearly says in our TOS that we do not allow spam. These people have no morals, when they just break the TOS and send illegal spam and then want their money back! I reported him to his ISP and did not refund his charges, he says he will charge it back but we shall see..