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SpamCop is an email spam reporting service, allowing recipients of unsolicited bulk or commercial email to report IP addresses found by SpamCop's analysis to be senders of the spam to the abuse reporting addresses of those IP addresses. SpamCop uses these reports to compile a list of computers sending spam called the "SpamCop Blocking List" or "SpamCop Blacklist" (SCBL).[1]
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 |
| Founder | Julian Haight |
| Parent |
|
| Website | spamcop |
SpamCop was founded by Julian Haight in 1998 as an individual effort. As the reporting service became more popular, staff were added and the SCBL became more useful. [2] It has commonly been the target of DDoS attacks and lawsuits from organizations listed in the SCBL. [3]
Email security company IronPort Systems announced its acquisition of SpamCop on November 24, 2003,[4] but it remained independently run by Julian Haight. A small staff and volunteer help in its forum.
IronPort agreed to become a division of Cisco Systems on January 4, 2007,[5] effectively making SpamCop a Cisco service. Julian Haight left approximately two years after the Cisco acquisition.[6]
SpamCop views itself as an attempt to stop spam without the necessity of governmental intervention, but because it lacks the power of a government or large ISP, it may have greater difficulty dealing with spammers' expertise as well as the large bot networks that they control and that they used to cripple Blue Security with a massive DDoS attack.[7]
SpamCop previously provided paid email accounts through Corporate Email Services (CES). On August 9, 2014, in an email to email account holders, CES announced that "[a]s of September 30, 2014 (Tuesday) 6pm ET, the current SpamCop Email service will be converted to email forwarding-only with spam filtered by SpamCop for all existing SpamCop Email users" and that "SpamCop will no longer provide IMAP or POP service [after that date]."[8]
As of 10:31:56 UTC on 31 January 2021, the domain and all sub-domains of spamcop.net resolved to a domain parking service due to the domain being expired. Later that day the domain was renewed and the service was again running. The outage resulted in messages being rejected due to the blacklist DNS entries all directing to the domain parking service.[9]
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SpamCop is effective at helping ISPs, web hosts and email providers identify accounts that are being abused and shut them down before the spammer finishes operations. SpamCop provides information from its reports to third parties who are also working to fight spam, amplifying the impact of its services beyond its own reach.
SpamCop's benefits include:
- Efficient Spam Detection: SpamCop uses advanced algorithms and techniques to efficiently detect and categorize spam emails. This enables users to identify and isolate unwanted email content, ensuring that their inboxes remain clutter-free and secure.[10]
- Reduced Inbox Clutter: With SpamCop's capabilities, users can significantly reduce the clutter in their email inboxes. By filtering out spam emails, individuals and businesses can focus on the important messages while ensuring that their productivity is not compromised by sifting through irrelevant content.
- Enhanced Security: SpamCop helps in enhancing email security by identifying and reporting potential threats. This proactive approach contributes to creating a safer email environment for users, protecting them from phishing attempts, malware, and other malicious activities associated with spam emails.
- Protecting Network Integrity: By reporting spam to the relevant network administrators, SpamCop aids in identifying and shutting down spam sources. This not only protects individual users but also contributes to the overall integrity and efficiency of email networks.[8]
- Contributing to the Global Effort Against Spam: Using SpamCop to report and combat spam contributes to the global effort to reduce and eliminate spam activities. By actively participating in this collective endeavor, users play a crucial role in creating a spam-free online environment.
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For first-time SpamCop Reporters, the SpamCop Parsing and Reporting Service requires that the reporter manually verify that each submission is spam and that the destinations of the spam reports are correct. People who use tools to automatically report spam, who report email that is not spam, or report to the wrong people may be fined or banned. This verification requires extra time and effort. Despite these steps, reports to innocent bystanders do happen and ISPs may need to configure SpamCop to not send further reports if they do not want to see them again. Here are some limitations of SpamCop:
- False Positives: SpamCop may sometimes flag legitimate emails as spam, leading to false positives. This can be frustrating for users who rely solely on SpamCop for spam detection.
- False Negatives: Conversely, SpamCop may fail to detect some spam emails, allowing them to reach the user's inbox. This can decrease the effectiveness of SpamCop as a spam filtering tool.
- Over-Reliance: Depending solely on SpamCop for spam detection can lead to over-reliance on the tool. Users may neglect other spam filtering methods or become complacent in recognizing spam without the aid of SpamCop.
- Limited Email Providers: SpamCop may not be compatible with all email providers or may not be as effective with certain providers. Users of less common or niche email services may not benefit fully from SpamCop's capabilities.
- Dependence on User Reports: SpamCop relies on user reports to identify spam sources and block them. If users do not report spam or if there is a lack of participation in the SpamCop community, its effectiveness may diminish.
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