Slamming Spam: A Guide for System Administrators

Appendix B. Reporting Spam

One of the oldest methods of dealing with spam is reporting it to the spammer’s provider. More recently, however, spammers have begun using other people’s resources to send their messages out, making spam reporting a difficult task. Many spammers have special contracts (often called “pink sheets”) where the provider allows spammers to send their garbage with impunity. Reporting these types of spammers often does no good, unless additional investigation is performed, and the spammer’s provider’s “upstream” provider (or an organization such as the North American Network Operators Group) gets involved.

Some spammers have started taking revenge on people who report spam, making them victims of joe job (or other types of) ...