Fixing the spam from MPCUSTOMER.com

[Chip Camden]

On Jun 10 2010 11:36, Robert Bonomi wrote:
> I have an approach that will get MidPhase's attention, but I need the help
> of as many of the other victims of their borked support system as I can
> round up.
> 
> Anybody who gets one of their misbeggotten trouble-ticket acks, please
> forward (or copy, or whatever) the message, with *COMPLETE* headers, to
> 'mp-spam at r-bonomi.com'.   Feel free to forward _every_ such ack you get,
> 
> If you have saved copies of their prior crimes, feel free to send them to
> the above address, as well.  Please send each such as a separate email,
> however; I'm tabulating on the basis of each message received -here-.
> 
> If you have/use procmail for handling incoming mail,, a recipie of:
> 
>    0: H:
>    * ^From: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
>    * ^Reply.*mpcustomer
>    ! mp-spam at r-bonomi.com
> 
> will do it automatically, _and_ eliminate it from your inbox.
> 
> However you do it, I'll bit-bucket anything not matching those two REs in
> an _unanchored_ form,  so a 'false-positive' in a forwarded message is "no 
> problem".
> 
> The larger the number of 'victims' I can show _actual_proof_ of, the more
> of a reaction I'll be able to  stir up.
> 
> The 'fun-and-games' -- They are in out-and-out violation of that mostly 
> *useless* piece of legislation known as CAN-SPAM.  Their *forgery* of the
> "From: " line to show the address of the mailing-list is a clear violation
> of 15 USC 7704 (a) (1).  What's even -more- fun, is that they are going to
> shoot themselves in the foot -- they will auto-ack *this* message, thereby
> establishing that they have "actual notice" of the violation, and thus, 
> that *EVERY* subsequent violation is 'knowing and wilful'.
> 
> Enough of the people on this list (a) run their own servers, and (b) provide 
> email handling for at least _one_ other person, such that they qualify, UNDER
> CAN-SPAM, as an ISP, and thus _have_ "standing" to initate a private lawsuit 
> under said law (=individuals= do _not_ have that right, *only* ISPs, the way 
> the law is written).  Now, with a whole _bunch_ of *ISPs* being victims, 
> there is the possibility of a _CLASS_ACTION_ civil suit.  
> 
> One can imagine what kind of _news_ coverage that even the contemplation
> of such an action would carry.
> 
> When I have a reasonable amount of 'ammunition' in hand, I look forward to
> a _very_ "interesting" discussion with their legal counsel.  <*BIG* grin>
> 

Excellent.  For those who use getlessmail, I've just committed a change
(http://bitbucket.org/apotheon/getlessmail/) to allow piping the message
to another command -- in this case, mail.  The relevant rule to add to a
.getlessmail profile would be something like:

((pipe '/usr/bin/mail -s mpcustomer mp-spam at r-bonomi.com') && block) if field "Reply-To",/\bmpcustomer\.com\b/i

-- 
Sterling (Chip) Camden | camdensoftware.com | chipstips.com | chipsquips.com