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If you would like to submit spam to the MAPS OPS for possible listing, then please read and follow these guidelines:
- Submissions must come from a valid email address that accepts our return mail
- Do not knowingly submit non-proxy spam
- Do not submit open relays
- Do not munge (alter) your submissions
- Do not include proxy test data
- Do not include extraneous comments
- Do not nominate the same IP address multiple times
- Do not automate submissions
- We will republish submissions at our discretion
- How and where to make a submission
Guideline #1
Submissions must come from a valid, confirmed email address that accepts our return mail. We cannot accept submissions from folks we cannot reply to. When you send in your first submission, your email address will be confirmed, just like when you sign up for a (properly run) mailing list. If you do not confirm your address, if you send your submission from a fake address, if the confirmation mail to you bounces, your submission, and any further submissions, will be ignored.
If we try to contact you about a submission, and that mail bounces, it is likely that we will refuse further submissions from you. We need a valid two-way communication path between us, so that the MAPS OPS staff can contact you with any questions or concerns with your submissions. Because the number of submissions we receive is increasing daily, we do not have the time to manually unmunge your address.
Guideline #2
Only submit proxy spam, do not submit spam that you know is not proxy spam. People nominate the servers of big ISPs regularly, generally because they are frustrated about the level of spam emanating from those servers. Only proxy spam is eligible for submission. How to tell if it is proxy spam? View a a few examples of various types of headers.
Guideline #3
Do not submit open relays to the MAPS OPS. We do not want to open relays or multi-hop open relays on the MAPS OPS—that's MAPS RSS or MAPS RBL territory.
Guideline #4
Do not munge. This means do not obscure or remove your email address or any other information contained in the spam headers. We do not hide from spammers and neither should you. Some folks complain that spammers scan the MAPS OPS files for addresses to remove from their lists—this simply is not borne out by our experience. If you delete or obscure other information, like receiving system host name, message-ID, SMTP ID, etc., then we will have to reject your submission. We need as much information available as possible, to assist us from a legal liability standpoint. We use a rudimentary filter on our web site that will attempt to hide your email address in the spam's headers. If you would like us to tweak the output of that filter, contact us with an example you're unhappy with, and we will see what we can do. (The filter will only address recipient email addresses in headers—it is not intended to munge other data.)
Guideline #5
Please do not include proxy test data in submissions. We will perform our own proxy test, so there's no need for you to include your proxy test data. It is nice to know that you took the extra effort to confirm the server's status, and that info does help us some times.
Guideline #6
Please do not include extraneous comments in submissions. This information will end up in our public database. We would like to shield the complainants (you) from possible spammer retaliation as much as possible. The more polite, short, and to the point your submissions are, the better we will be able to do that. Also, it is best not to include your email signature in your submissions. Do you really want the public to be able to view this information in our database?
Guideline #7
Do not nominate the same IP address more than once. The system in place will not allow you to nominate the same IP address to the MAPS OPS more than once. The reason for this is that some folks submit the same spam multiple times because they would like us to work harder to list a site on the MAPS OPS. This only would slow down our ability to process submissions and would result in duplicate copies of the same spam in our database.
Guideline #8
Don't send in automated submissions. A few different times, folks have started sending us hundreds of automated submissions at a time without asking us first. If you are going to automate submissions to the MAPS OPS, you need to get our approval before hand. We are not necessarily looking for more automated submissions, as we would rather have better data over more data.
Guideline #9
Usage of submission evidence. By submitting any evidence, material, or information to the MAPS OPS list, you grant us unlimited permission to republish or redistribute this information in any manner we see fit. MAPS OPS submission data will be made available to the MAPS RBL, and various spam archive or network abuse-related services, at our discretion. All information contained in any of your communication with the MAPS OPS team will be considered public knowledge.
Guideline #10
How to Nominate. Sending us submissions is actually very easy.
Just send one full spam to proxies@mail-abuse.com. In the body of your email, above the full spam, make sure you add a line that says:
Proxy: (ip address)
Replace (ip address) with the IP address of the server you have received the proxy spam from. Make sure there is nothing else on that line, and make sure that you format it properly (it has to be the word 'proxy' followed by a colon and a space.)
Make sure that the submitted spam contains full headers (do not munge (delete or obscure) system names or email addresses) and complete body text. Also, make sure that you are sending plain text, not a mime-attachment.
Please note that submissions will be refused or ignored at our discretion.
Please do not send anything else to proxies@mail-abuse.com. It will be rejected.
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