Our response to Spews and other DNSBLs

DNS Made Easy has strict anti-spam and anti UCE and UBE policies. Please review or TOS and Disclaimer. We can control what we return from our nameservers and systems.

If someone is using any of our services to Spam, send out UCE or UBE they will be shut down immediately without refund. This is something we can control. However there are somethings that DNS Made Easy has "no" control over. Getting listed on Spews or some other DNSBLs (that use Spews) is one of them.

Spews and other DNSBLs will list computers and thousands (and often millions) of IP addresses as a punishment for companies in the same address space. Obviously this is wrong and flawed. Spews finds that listing millions of IP at a time actually helps solve the problem, but they do not realize that it blocks millions of valid IP in the process.

If you want to use a DNSBL (RBL) then we suggest users use Spamhaus (http://www.spamhaus.org). Spamhaus actually cares about their service and work hard to make sure the list is updated and is correct. Spews on the other hand has other agendas.

The remainder of this page will explain why the Spews lists (and some other DNSBLs) do not work and why they are not respected by most knowledgable system administrators. Many of these flaws also show why many businesses do not use the highly flawed Spews list and have chosen to use a higher quality of spam prevenstion. The truth is that if you just rely on Spews you will be loosing many valid emails.

The first point to note is that Spews will very rarely (mostly never) unlist IPs that are on their list. They instead find it fun to "roast" (make fun of) companies that are listed even though many did not do anything wrong. This is caused by Spews listing thousands (and millions) of IPs at once. If you do not believe this then you can read it for yourself at news.admin.net-abuse.email.

The second point that we want to explain is that any user can point their domain to DNS Made Easy's nameservers. Registrars allow users to point their domains to our systems without any approval from us. This is just how the Internet works.

This allows spammers to point their domains to our systems without our permission. And this also prevents DNS provider's like ourselves to move these abusive domains away from our systems. In fact over 95% of spammers do not care if the domain is functional so they do not care if the DNS works. So the idea of just turning off the domain does not solve this problem. However Spews and other RBLs feel that DNS Made Easy should somehow magically control this. (The Spews and other RBLs do not really understand how the Internet works. As a DNS provider you can not move a domain away from name servers. Only registrars can do this.)

Fact: A normal spammer can send out over 5 million emails per day. This can contribute to a great deal of traffic for DNS providers even if the domain is not found on the nameservers. (Returning a "record not found" still takes bandwidth and resources.) So of course DNS providers do not want them on our network.

It has been the opinion of Spews and other DNSBLs that the registrars have no ability to help in this situation and only the DNS providers and hosting providers are to blame for the spam problem. When in fact the DNS providers are the ones that can not do anything to stop the spammers. This once again shows how the administrators of Spews do not really understand how the Internet works.

DNS Made Easy finds this shocking because it is the registrar's that have the complete power to which systems these domains point to. And they are the only authority to decide if the domain should be used again.

Another shocking fact is that Spews and other DNSBLs will blacklist all of the IPs for DNS and hosting providers if a abusive domain is pointing to their systems. When in fact the DNS provider can do "nothing" to move the domain away from their systems. (Once again thise shows how the people of Spews and other RBLs do not understand the technology.)

Fact: The admins of Spews find it adequate to block thousands of IPs for one abusive user. This usually prevents many valid users from being able to send emails to users that use Spews. Forunately less and less users use the Spews list everyday.

Even after a DNS provider spends the time to shut down a domain that a spammer needs (most often they do not care what happens to the domains) the spammer can easily just move the domain to new name servers / hosting servers. Starting the battle all over again for a new provider. Spews and DNSBLs thinks that this is adequate and the registrar and registries should not get involved. Obviously this is a mistake on their part. Even if you look at this from an unbiased point of view.

Unfortunately the admins of Spews and other RBLs gain financially by not listing organizations that could help fight the spam problem. Making their decisions very biased.

DNS Made Easy agrees with the principles that many of the DNSBLs (RBLs) have with their fight against spam, UCE, and UBE. But for the reasons mentioned above we disagree with the renegade tactics they use to block IPs and hurt businesses that have done everything they can do to fight the spam problem. Especially when many of the registrars, registries, and other companies that usually do nothing with the fight for spam and will never get listed.

Why does DNS Made Easy believe that Spews and other DNSBLs use renegade tactics and are very biased?

• You can read the many childish actions of Spews admins by reading news.admin.net-abuse.email.
• It has been the opinion of Spews and other DNSBLs that because it would financially cost a registrar or registry to fight the spam problem that they should not be listed. Obviously the registrars have a financial play (or major influence) in what sites get listed in Spews or other DNSBLs. This is sort of a "crush the competition" technique without "the regular public" knowing who is in charge.
• DNS Made Easy average cost for DNS per domain in 2003 was 37.5 cents. This is far less than the profit of any registrar or registry makes per domain. If DNS Made Easy can be profitable and can fight spam then so should all registrars and registries. Spews and other DNSBLs disagree with us.
• If DNS Made Easy tells a registrar or registry to move an abusive domain away from our nameservers they are supposed to listen and shut the domain down. This promotes spam because the spammer is never out an money or penalized. Spews and other DNSBLs disagree with us.
• If DNS Made Easy tells a registrar or registry that a domain is abusive and DNS Made Easy shuts them down they SHOULD not allowed to move the domain to another DNS provider within 24 hours! This allows spam! The domain should be shut down and not be allowed to continue operating. Spews and DNSBLs disagree with this.
• Everyone that does not help fight Spam should be listed in DNSBLs. But it appears that if a company pays Spews or has a decision in Spews they get away with allowing spamming. Basically trying to get rid of the competition by having a so called "DNSBL" do it for you. Of course Spews disagrees with us here also.
• Financial limitations or not. Any organization that allows Spam should get listed. No exceptions, no reasoning, no excuses, no bias decisions. Spews and other DNSBLs disagree with us.
• Spews and other DNSBLs have taken a childish behavior when asking to get removed from their lists. They will often mock your efforts to get rid of the violating users and use it as a roast to make fun of you and your organization. This lacks the professional attitude that origanizations like this deserve. Of course Spews and other DNSBLs disagree with us here also. They feel that their childish behavior is acceptable as this is the only way they know how to "fight spam".

How can Spews and DNSBLs make these judgments and make these actions?

They can do this quite easily because there is no central authority to monitor their actions and correct their mistakes. No one is forced to use Spews or the DNSBLs. People volunteer to use their services. So the fact is that these DNSBLs are not blocking anyone. It is the users that are blocking their own incoming valid emails. Any person that uses Spews and other DNSBLs should know that they are also blocking valid email. If they do not know this then you should probably tell them. The number of false positives (good email being junked) by using a DNSBL such as Spews is shockingly high.

DNS Made Easy / Tiggee LLC will continue to fight spam, UCE and UBE. But it is our philosophy that this should not be done with bias judgments and renegade tactics. You should not harm businesses that have done everything in their power to fight spam. We will not acknowledge any organization that feels that acting like children and hurting qualified business is "correct" operating procedures.

Will DNS Made Easy offer a refund if systems get listed in Spews?

First we should mention, that getting listed in Spews should not (and will not) affect any POP, IMAP, Backup Mail Service or Mail Server Forwarding Service.

If any of our systems to get listed in Spews we will try our to get them removed at the earliest convenience. This means that we will remove the (or probably have already removed) the problem user. This should be easy as we remove all spammers from our network immediately. But that is as far as DNS Made Easy / Tiggee LLC will play their game. We will not continuely ask for forgiveness and tolerate the childish behavior that the Spews admins have seem to have taken. So there will be a zero refund if any of our services do get listed as DNS Made Easy has done (and will continue to do) everything in it's power to fight the battle of spam, UCE, and UBE.

DNS Made Easy / Tiggee LLC can not base our business decisions on renegade / childish tactics of those individuals that run the Spews lists or other DNBLs. All our servers are located at the state of the art data centers and we have signed contracts with our providers, not with Spews or DNSBLs. SPEWS will NOT tell US how to run OUR business. Having Spews run our business decisions would not be fare to our customers who trust us with their data and rely on us to keep their businesses running. Would you trust an "unknown" person to decide what you should do with your business? Especially when the decision to list sites and companies has been historically very biased and has the influence of our competitors (that usually charge much more than our record-setting low prices).

Since DNS Made Easy has no control over the DNSBLs and their decision making then there is not much we can do but continue to fight the spread of Spam. We have contacted the appropriate authorities and agencies but unfortunately these groups are biased, childish, and have no central organizing power.

Is Spews or other DNSBLs any good at all? Why do people use them then?

Spews and DNSBLs can be a useful tool in the fight against spam if properly managed. But the decision to block certain IPs is a very peronsal decision based on each user receiving the spam email. However, when using blacklists, one must balance the aggressiveness of the each blacklist (i.e., Spews, SORBS, and other DNSBL) against the risk of rejecting legitimate messages (i.e., false positives). False positives are an unfortunate consequence of using any email blacklist; no blacklist is completely free of them. If you block email using a blacklist or even a domain name, you run the risk of rejecting mail from a non-spammer. This can result is lost sales and loss revenue. This is why very few large companies that rely on communicating with their customers use Spews or would considering using it at all. When using a blacklist, your goal should be to eliminate as much spam as possible, while minimizing the number of false positives. Using Spews or other DNSBLs puts your decision making in someone elses power. You are trusting your communication and business to people who wants to remain "nameless" in identity. Not a very good business decision.

Spews and other DNSBLs are affective to a point. You will not receive nearly the amount of spam that you would have gotten without the use of their services. But you will also not be receiving the amount of email that you "should" be receiving. You will lose many valid emails in the process.

With the decision of Spews to list large sets of IPs, and the inablity of system administrators to get any of these IPs removed from their lists they are creating a large amount of false positives which is a loss of legitimate email. This results in loss of communication, loss of sales, loss of revenue, loss of business.

What do other DNS Made Easy users think of Spews and DNSBLs?

One DNS Made Easy user stated:
"Spews is only a topic, and the Spews admins act the way that they do because people let it "mean" something. The truth is that the more people start to ignore it the faster it will just go away and will be replaced by something that has a true organization and that is unbiased in it's listings. Spews is only hurting itself as more people are ignoring their services as they continue to act like children mocking everyone that ask them to get removed. The childish actions by the Spews admins is both unprofessional and uncalled for. "

Send us your comments, we would love to hear what you think.

So what can be done if mail servers are not accepting your emails?

The first thing that you should do is contact the agency and group that is using these DNSBLs and explain to them the problems that are associated with the DNSBL systems. Explain to them that even though they may be blocking a few spam messages a day, they are also loosing many valid emails. This is why very few large companies that rely on sales use these lists. They would rather deal with the spam then lose a sale. Less companies are using Spews and other DNSBLs every day.

Many of our users ask what they can do to contribute and have their feelings be heard. We suggest you read and discuss these topics at the following newsgroups.

news.admin.net-abuse.sightings
news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins
news.admin.net-abuse.email
news.admin.net-abuse.blocklisting