I'm suspicious of a customer that has just joined my company, as soon as his account was created we experienced high loads with exim working its socks off.

I have temporarily suspended his/her account while i figure out what to do, i have contacted them and they say that their mail is for a newsletter website.

Is this a justified reason to check their account for suspicious files that could be sending spam?

Regards.

EDIT: They wish to send 20,000 messages a day, which, for a shared account is unacceptable. What should i advise them?

I'm suspicious of a customer that has just joined my company, as soon as his account was created we experienced high loads with exim working its socks off.

I have temporarily suspended his/her account while i figure out what to do, i have contacted them and they say that their mail is for a newsletter website.

Is this a justified reason to check their account for suspicious files that could be sending spam?

Regards.

EDIT: They wish to send 20,000 messages a day, which, for a shared account is unacceptable. What should i advise them?

Give them the boot. The likelyhood of it being a legal, valid newsletter is about 1 in 1 million.

I'm suspicious of a customer that has just joined my company, as soon as his account was created we experienced high loads with exim working its socks off.

I have temporarily suspended his/her account while i figure out what to do, i have contacted them and they say that their mail is for a newsletter website.

Is this a justified reason to check their account for suspicious files that could be sending spam?

Regards.

EDIT: They wish to send 20,000 messages a day, which, for a shared account is unacceptable. What should i advise them?

Even if it the emails are legit, they are still causing high load on your server, which I'm sure is something your customers won't like.

Should i look into their account files to work out if they are legit?

I have advised them that if they wish to send 20,000 messages a day that they should be looking at running a dedicated server (if they are legit).

Whether they are legit or not, that's not something for a shared environment. Even if you find out that the account was spamming, there is very little you could do. I've had a few of these sign-ups -- I've caught them quickly -- and you'll usually suspend the account (every once in a while a spammer will submit a ticket, playing dumb) and a few days later you will receive a PayPal dispute of an unauthorized charge, in which case you will not win. But yes, you could look at the customer's files, but it's not going to do you any good. Either way, I wouldn't want the customer on my server.

Seriously, why do you even need to ask the advice of anyone here? You know what you need to do. ;)

--Tina

Their account is disabled and will remain so indefinably. I'm just trying to advise them on the best course of action if they wish to continue sending thousands of e-mails.

First, I would hope they're throttling the emails. Pushing through 20,000 emails at once is not good. I would suggest taking a peak at PHPList or a similar application.

A hosting company that specializes in mailing lists is another good suggestion. I've worked with Consistent Contact in the past. It was a pleasurable experience.

Finally, 20,000 emails a day? I could understand a weekly newsletter but a 20,000 a day email? It does seem fishy to me.

Rick

Surely if he's breaking my TOS i do not have to give him a refund or would i lose over paypal?

You really need to throttle exim. 20,000 emails of legitamite traffic is one thing. But is still not designed for the shared environment. If it *ISNT* spam and you offer a dedicated server solution, you could always recommend it to the customer.

But usually. If they are sending 20,000 emails out. It isn't legit.

Unless they are a decent sized business.

This is starting to become common.
I have got 2 registrations like this.
As soon as the account is setup they start their spamming script on the server.
And like thousands of emails start being sent.
When you suspend they dispute in paypal as Unauthorized.
So stay away from these guys. They only join to spam as much as they can before the host suspends.

Thanks

Surely if he's breaking my TOS i do not have to give him a refund or would i lose over paypal?

You might wind the paypal argument and then in turn piss off an ex-customer, enough that he/she starts spreading ill will regarding your company.

If you're dealing with him professionally and he in turn, then I wouldn't push the money issue as much as getting him off your servers

We have a general rule for customers with high-quantity emails that they must be a registered company trading for over 2 years.. Makes it easier to verify who they are and what they do..

We also courtesy call or email all new signups to learn abit more about them as part of our fraud checks
.