Bad Internet citizen: Optimum Online
[Update: A very helpful friend got in touch with some Optimum Online support staff, thereby working around the black hole that is abuse@cv.net. They disconnected the problematic customer, and I haven't gotten any messages from them since. Thanks!]
I’ve previously complained about the volume of mail I’ve been getting from the SoBig.F worm. About a week ago, I decided to do something about it. I noticed that rather than getting only a few messages from each of thousands of different computers, I was getting thousands of messages from a few specific computers. I started to contact their ISPs and request that each ISP take action.
Some appear to have done so; I’m not getting mail from their systems any more. Then there’s Optimum Online. I’ve called them twice and each time been told, “Sorry, we can’t do anything. You have to email abuse@cv.net.” So I’ve done that. Twice. Pointing them to the specific IP address that’s causing problems: 67.82.176.191. And giving them the headers of one of the messages.
The result? Nothing. Not even a “Sorry, we need more information” response. I got another 150 or so messages from that same computer last night. You’d think an ISP would care that one of their customers is bulk-mailing the world, but apparently Optimum Online doesn’t care.
chuqui Said,
August 30, 2003 @ 4:39 pm
now, make sure you mail the URL to this post to abuse@cv.net. And if they ignore it, print it out and paper mail it to the president of the company.
Jeff Harrell Said,
September 1, 2003 @ 9:19 am
I guess I’m a little confused. Why should an ISP care that you’re getting a lot of email from one of their customers? Unless what the customer is doing negatively impacts the ISP’s business, or puts the ISP in a position of liability, why should they care?
Judi Said,
September 3, 2003 @ 7:38 pm
The customer had a virus that they probably either didn’t know about, or didn’t care. That’s different than someone intentionally sending out email. It’s worse than spam, which btw is against most ISP’s Terms of Service, Optimum Online included.
Oh, and Eric, I should say that I was corrected…mail to abuse@cv.net does get read. Eventually. It’s spam@cv.net that’s the black hole, which supports the point I was making in the previous paragraph.