[SpamCop-List] Re: request for location information...

[Aviatrix]

John O. Kopf wrote:
> As far as I'm concerned, when the Email-providing ISP fails to block a
> username that's originating spam after severa weeks, they are in cahoots
> with the sender, and I want the local law enforcement people to have a
> word with the ISP about their lax practices.


When you say "the username that is originating the spam", what username
are you actually talking about? Do you mean the email address that is in
the "from" line of the spam?

If so then you are barking up the wrong tree.

In 99 per cent of cases the address that appears in the "from" line of a
spam has nothing whatsoever to do with who actually sent the spam.
Spammers always forge their "from" lines, either by using completely
fictitious addresses or by picking random addresses from their spamming
databases. In all likelihood someone somewhere in the world is sending
spam with my address and your address in the "from" line right at this
very moment. That's what spammers do.

Sometimes spammers will put an email address in the body of their email
message because they actually want people to contact them (this is
usually the case with advance fee and lottery fraud spam). Very
occasionally (that's the 1%!) a newbie fraudster may even put a real
address in the "from" line - you can usually tell it's a real address
because the email will say something like "please reply to me at this
address". If the spammer has given you an address at which they want to
be contacted then it is indeed a good idea to write to the abuse address
of whoever hosts that particular email address. However, in all other
cases the "from" address is going to be a forgery and you would be
wasting your time writing to the postmaster/abuse address for the forged
"from" address.