Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jun 13 - 03:44 AM

Hello All,

Ever since the spam outbreak on .pw, we as the Registry have spent the past month and a half by undertaking a massive cleanup initiative. We have not waited for the Registrars to investigate and respond to complaints; rather we have ourselves taken down domain names which have proven to be abusive. While most of the forums have attributed rock bottom prices to be the sole reason for this outbreak, our investigations prove otherwise.

Our abuse desk has been kept busy with large volumes of complaints against .pw domains, each being responded within the time frame of 24 hours (and in most cases within a matter of few hours). The team has successfully traced the source of these spammy domains to customers under a single Registrar account. This means that more than pricing, this attack manifests itself as an activity carried out by an organized group of spammers targeting one particular Registrar portfolio. Over 95% of the spam mails have been perpetrated through this single Registrar. To curb this abuse, we have considered to respond and taken down reported domain names belonging to this Registrar.

In order to control this incident, we have tightened the nooze around other Registrars as well, thus implying the repercussions of our AUP violation (which we have been very particular about). In addition to our reactive techniques, we have also been eliminating abusive domains name at the registration phase by using pattern matching and anomaly based methods. This approach has proven to be very effective and has successfully eliminated 20-30% of domain names which are likely to be used for illicit activities.

In addition, to responding to complaints from individual internet users, the .pw Registry has been working closing with anti-abuse entities such as Symantec ,Spamhaus and SURBL. We have also tied up with NameSentry to beef up our abuse monitoring process.   Being a Registry, we have access to very limited information as compared to a Registrar. Yet we have managed to weed out and terminate abusive domain names more proactively, compared to other Registries out there.

Last but not the least, we would like to thank each and everyone who have criticized, appreciated or raised concerns in our effort to curb the abuse. In order to assist us with our efforts, we request you to update us with your complaints at [e-mail].

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 May 13 - 05:25 PM

When you guys block *.pw, was this in Outlook? If not, does it work for Outlook?

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Apr 13 - 01:59 PM

I followed the link above about the 'official country top level domain.' Something tells me that a site like .us that uses light-gray sans-serif type is not actually official.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 27 Apr 13 - 01:14 PM

Virgin Media (Telewest or Blueyonder) also take out almost all spam. I get no more than about ten a week that slip through.

Don T.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 Apr 13 - 12:05 PM

Don.t get more than about two spam a day. The junk mail box usually catches them and the cable server helps.

If a flood came in, I would change my email address.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 27 Apr 13 - 10:59 AM

gmail has the best spam filters of any service I have used. Spam goes into a separate folder and is dumped periodically. I never see it unless I choose to open the spam folder.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Apr 13 - 10:23 AM

I noted the same possibility, but the comment was probably from a Brit. We have a lot of them here. I assumed that for most of them only .uk matters so they'd be ok.

(Add your own grins. I don't do emoticons.)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Apr 13 - 03:53 AM

I know that most Americans use global TLDs but blocking the official country top level domain for the United States of America seems a bit excessive.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Apr 13 - 12:32 AM

yup added .us to the ole blockeroo and all is great!

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Apr 13 - 06:05 PM

Bloced pw and us , no more spams - at least for now

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Apr 13 - 09:56 PM

That's nice to hear. Thanks for posting.

It's been ten days now with no spam from them. It is so nice to open my e-mail and not have 25 messages from them and their ilk.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Apr 13 - 06:02 PM

I just did the same. Blocked anything from *.pw. Works like a charm.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: Mr Red
Date: 18 Apr 13 - 09:39 AM

As a domain name holder I use a lot of one-off email addresses when enquiring or purchasing.

But I still get spam from avaaz & linkedin which I deal with in Outlook > Tools > Rules. But they are generated by friends (some friend!) thinking I want to know all the latest gossip & or famine/earthquake/flood/pandemic/politics that needs my spare stipend.

& Farcebook has been dealt with on Farcebook --- as if I want to know that a friend of a friend has just looked at a picture from a friend of a friend of theirs! (geeeeeeeze).

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: Andrez
Date: 18 Apr 13 - 06:55 AM

Great, thats all that matters in the end!

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 07:53 PM

It seems to be working.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 06:00 PM

Thanks for the info, everybody. I've learned some new things. Now I'm going to try blocking *.pw.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,Rev Bayes
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 03:50 PM

Some confusion creeping in here. There is a difference between a top level domain and a domain name.

Leeneia, you're slightly confused about the principles of domain names and whatnot. It doesn't really matter. The main point to realise is that blocking anythign from sending you email is in the long term pointless because anyone can send you an email claiming to come from any address.

You can do more sophisticated filtering, but you would be much better off finding another way of doing this. Again, most people are better off with Gmail than trying to fix their own problems.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 03:34 PM

So much spam is from spoofed addresses that blocking is of little value. Use an email provider that has provides decent filters.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 02:26 PM

I use 3 different email addresses: between them, they have provision for reporting different types of spam, e.g. phishing scams, friend's account hacked, blocking specific addresses or subjects such as gambling, Viagra ads, so make use of them rather than just deleting unwanted mail. That will hopefully cut down on the spam, although as fast as you get rid of one b#gger, another pops up!
I've had a spate of "Yahoo" emails telling me my account will be suspended if I don't click "here" - report them to Yahoo.
Likewise, "problem with your Paypal account - please verify your details" - forward the email to [e-mail] for them to track the offender!

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 12:17 PM

A general search for "pw" indicates that it's used in more than one way, either as a domain name or as the name of a service/server name, with both usages appearing in email addresses.

A search for "block email senders" gets a wholebunchahits that seem to indicate that different email providers use rather variable methods for specifying how to block stuff, and that regardless of who handles your email the programs you use can also affect what you need to enter to block what you intend to get rid of.

An email address has three distinct parts to it, but in the search results different people call the different parts by different names, some of which make vague sense while others appear to be based on hallucinatons of things seen by persons living in worlds other than (most of) the rest of us.

This is "community forum support" at work (Microsoft's primary method for providing user help since they deleted their Knowledge Base to try to kill Win98. It's also used by others, seldom successfully).

An email address in it's most general form consists of THREE names in a fairly specific sequence, separated by "standard markers:"

"user_name AT service DOT domain"

The user_name is sometimes called the "account name" since you usually need to set up an account with that name at the "service" that makes your connections for you.

Theoretically, you would be able to block a "user_name" (example might be: "molester@*.*") so that any person with that name would go to junk mail regardless of what service it came from, so [e-mail] AND [e-mail] would both be blocked (or anyone using the name "molester" from any mail service). Whether this would work depends mainly on the rules set up by the service you use, but may also be affected by what program(s) you use for your mail.

You also should be able to block any service. The exact form for this might be something "*@gmail.com" although the exact way you need to enter it may vary. If a way is given to do it, this would mean that NO MAIL from anyone using gmail should get to your inbox.

Prevously, the "domain names" had fairly specific meanings. Several "general" domain names were common. A .com was an "open" name to be used by anyone for "commercial" business, .org was a "restricted" domain name that meant the service was had non-profit owner. For the most part, you can no longer rely on these to tell you what kind of people sent something.

A separate set of domain names may indicate a "country" where the service operates, like .uk or .us etc.

Several additional "kinds" of domain names are now in use, and for some of them there is almost no formal regulation of which ones can be used by what people.

The example email address in the first post:

[e-mail]

means that someone named "KatiG" with an account at a service named "ailinly" sent something from domain .pw.

Note that .com DOES NOT APPEAR IN THE ADDRESS so blocking "pw.com" would only divert mail from anyone using a service provider named pw located within the .com domain. Some search results indicate that there may actually be a "pw.com" and that there also are "severalsomethings.pw," but they would be entirely different things.

The "instruction" for how to block mail from "pw" probably meant mail from a person using the name "pw" but the objectionable mail was coming from "someone from the .pw domain."

You should be able to block individual usernames, by entering the full address as "[e-mail]."

You should be able to block ALL MAIL from a particular service by entering something "like service.domain."

It would generally seem a little drastic to block everything from a domain, but might be be something you'd want to do, by entering, in this case, something like ".pw."

You may or may not need to include a "*" to indicate "anything that fits in this place."

If you can distinguish between a "person sending it" and the "service they send from" and the "domain it comes from" it shouldn't be difficult to follow the instructions given by your provider/program, but if you mix them up 'taint gonna work.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: Newport Boy
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 12:11 PM

In case my post confused anyone, it looks like Professional Web have done a deal with Palau. Very small countries with a useful top level domain can make a lot of money - Tuvalu is another example.

Phil

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 11:40 AM

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: Newport Boy
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 09:34 AM

@leeneia - I hadn't come across Professional Web before, but it seems to be in the domain name registration business. It was available for general registration from March and registers .pw domains without any apparent restriction. .pw is a new top level domain, like .com, .org, etc.

They seem to be Dubai-based and offer domains via a large number of Registrars. They claim to deal with abuse via these Registrars, which means you first have to find the Registrar. There's some help via registry.pw/policies/ but I would guess that spam filtering would be more effective.

Phil

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 09:31 AM

Domain Name: PW.COM
   Registrar: CSC CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC.
   Whois Server: whois.corporatedomains.com
   Referral URL: http://www.cscglobal.com
   Name Server: DNS1.CSCDNS.NET
   Name Server: DNS2.CSCDNS.NET
   Status: clientTransferProhibited
   Updated Date: 03-jan-2012
   Creation Date: 08-jan-1988
   Expiration Date: 07-jan-2014

Registrar Name: CSC CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC.
   Address: 2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400, Wilmington, DE 19808, US
   Phone Number: 1-800-927-9800 ext. 3180
   Email: [e-mail]
   Whois Server: whois.corporatedomains.com
   Referral URL: www.cscglobal.com
   Admin Contact: Gretchen Olive
   Phone Number: 1.800.927.9801 ext 63180
   Email: [e-mail]
   Admin Contact: Jenny Dawson
   Phone Number: 302-636-5401 x63376
   Email: [e-mail]
   Admin Contact: Erin MacAlpine
   Phone Number: 302-636-5401 x65256
   Email: [e-mail]
   Admin Contact: Registry Relations
   Phone Number: 302-636-5400
   Email: [e-mail]
   Admin Contact: Mark Smyth
   Phone Number: 302-636-5400 x 63373
   Email: [e-mail]
   Admin Contact: Jaimy Gillow
   Phone Number: 302-636-5400 Ext 63363
   Email: [e-mail]
   Admin Contact: Carolyn Nye
   Phone Number: 302-636-5400 x 53299
   Email: [e-mail]
   Admin Contact: Elva Shipkowski
   Phone Number: 302-636-5400 x 63216
   Email: [e-mail]
   Billing Contact: Gretchen Olive
   Phone Number: 1.800.927.9801 ext 63180
   Email: [e-mail]
   Billing Contact: Jenny Dawson
   Phone Number: 302-636-5401 x63376
   Email: [e-mail]
   Billing Contact: Erin MacAlpine
   Phone Number: 302-636-5401 x65256
   Email: [e-mail]
   Billing Contact: CSC Corporate Domains Billing
   Phone Number: +1.9027465201
   Email: [e-mail]
   Technical Contact: Gretchen Olive
   Phone Number: 1.800.927.9801 ext 63180
   Email: [e-mail]
   Technical Contact: Jenny Dawson
   Phone Number: 302-636-5401 x63376
   Email: [e-mail]
   Technical Contact: Tom Crew
   Phone Number: 302-636-5401 x63246
   Email: [e-mail]
   Technical Contact: Forest Rosen
   Phone Number: 212-299-5600
   Email: [e-mail]
   Technical Contact: Mark Smyth
   Phone Number: 302-636-5400 x 63373
   Email: [e-mail]
   Technical Contact: Walt Fry
   Phone Number: [phone] x 63295
   Email: [e-mail]

Don't get too excited. If the email has a ".pw" on the end it's coming from a server on Palau, possibly on a pass-through. So:

The existence of SPAM and computer viruses are beyond the scope and authority of ICANN to resolve. If the content is of an illegal nature, or if you believe you are being spammed in violation of the law, you may wish to consult an attorney or an appropriate consumer protection agency.

For further information about SPAM and tips to avoid "phishing" scams, you may wish to visit the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's SPAM website at http://www.ftc.gov/spam/ or Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(electronic).

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 09:04 AM

Thanks, Andrez. I don't use Outlook but my ISP allows me to block individuals and domains. However, blocking pw.com doesn't do the job. (The spam from there is as bad as ever.) You say you can block whole domains. When you do that, do you always use .com? Or are there other possible letters after the dot? (I know about .org and .edu, of course.)

I don't use Outlook, but my ISP has options similar to what you have. I click on Webmail to read my e-mail, but to do the spam blocking I get on my ISP's site, I sign in again, and I work with options for members only. So I think I can safely say that by that time I am working with a dedicated e-mail package.

About those syllables that come after a dot, such as "org, com, and edu" - what's the technical term for those?

(I think my problem is that ProfessionalWeb is hiding its domain name from the general public.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: Andrez
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 08:37 AM

Hi Jeenia,

If using Outlook as your mail client the Tools menu should give you options to configure junk email protection. This might depend a little on what version of Outlook you are using and which platform Mac or PC. I am doing this on a Mac using Outlook 2011 and am too snug in bed to go over and fire up a PC to double check there.

That said the Junk email protection option in Outlook 2011 lets me block individual senders or whole domains. Once tagged like that I generally stop getting junk from those addresses and my ISP generally picks up s few on my behalf giving me the option to let them through or to ignore them and let the ISP delete them on my behalf.

Looking at the discussion above, it seems like you might be accessing your email through a web browser and not a dedicated email package. Would that be the case? That makes the situation tougher to manage.

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 04:32 AM

Unless you're actually getting emails from [e-mail], they're not the problem. In fact, even if you are they probably aren't the problem anyway, as email can be sent as if it were from any address.

If you are consistently getting email from a particular @blahblah.pw or blahblah.com, block blahblah.pw or blahblah.com. That's unlikely in this day and age. But again, the best and quickest fix is an account that does real spam filtering.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Apr 13 - 07:54 PM

pw is also the domain name for Professional Web, and I think the e-mails are coming from there. Evidently people who have (or pretend to have) something to peddle sign up on Professional Web, which then sends out the spam on their behalf.

I realize that pw is also Palau, and I am willing to live with the tragedy of blocking e-mail from there.

As I mentioned, blocking pw.com hasn't worked. How do I find out what Professional Web's domain is really called? I've tried "whois pw" already.

Subject: RE: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,Rev Bayes
Date: 16 Apr 13 - 04:28 PM

You want to block ailinly.pw. Blocking pw.com is like not wanting to go to Lower Loxley and therefore refusing to go to Loxley-on-Sea.

Bludgeoning the metaphor to death, blocking pw.php is like not wanting to to Lower Loxley and therefore refusing to fly by aeroplane. Or something.

.pw is the top level domain for Palau. If you don't know anyone that lives there, block *.pw and stop worrying about it.

And use an email service that does spam blocking for you. Gmail can pick up your own account's email if you want to keep the address.

Subject: Tech: suggestion for blocking spam?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Apr 13 - 04:15 PM

Mt e-mail account is being flooded with spam, and here's a typical sender's address:

[e-mail]

After some hassle, I found a page on my e-mail service that says I can block e-mail from pw by typing 'pw.com' into a box. Ha! I did, and the junk keeps coming.

So I looked up some stuff, and I added the following possibilities:

pw.org
pw.html
pw.php

There's not so much spam coming at present, but some pw's are still getting through.

Can any techies suggest some other pw.*** to block? I'd be grateful.

I'm also getting spam from .info and .us addresses. If I learn something new, I'll apply it to them, too.