On 1/8/2019 11:46 AM, Jim Popovitch via mailop wrote:
The same has been said about HTML emails...but that hasn't stopped folks from using them.;-)
"apples to oranges" comparison - sort of like saying it is ok to cheat on your taxes because some people drive 5 miles above the speed limit.
IMO "suspicious practice" is a wide brush. One might say the same about all DNSBLs being suspicious because there is a fair amount of ambiguity, mystery, and uncertainty. The reality is pay-to-play works (both at Barracuda and UCE Protect), like it or not, it is an extremely small entry point for entry level players and it provides a way for the operators of those BLs to know exactly who they are whitelisting. The only other solution would be an Internet Operators License;-)
My "suspicious practice" label was almost a sarcastic understatement. I was trying to be generous and forgiving. I don't think you're understanding exactly how/why pay-for-play for a blacklist comes across as an unethical extortion scam. Pretend you just got blacklisted and your users are mad as hell about how much of their outbound legitimate messages are currently being blocked. Then pretend that the DNSBL that blacklisted you is willing to delist you, but ONLY if you would just pay them money. Then think hard about all the motivations involved. For example, suppose you had a security hole that was very brief, and less than 1K spams went out - you had fixed it quickly - but now a lot more legit messages are being blocked... and this has been happening for days now. Then the DNSBL states that they don't care, and you'll stay listed for almost another week until you pay up. Its like that, fwiw. Do you see that there might be a conflict of interest in their blacklisting/delisting decisions?
(unfortunately, some will have to be on the receiving end of this to actually know how this feels)
-- Rob McEwen https://www.invaluement.com _______________________________________________ mailop mailing list mailop@mailop.org https://chilli.nosignal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mailop
