At 04:12 PM 4/11/2001, Jean-Guy Savoie wrote:
>Mostly right, however the E-Mails are most often undeliverable because the
>spammer includes a fake return address.  He (or she or it) is most often
>only interested in you clicking on his link (included in the spam message)
>or to phone a telephone sucker hot-line he hosts.
>
>As far as complaining to the abuse@domain.name, I am convinced that exept
>for the rare domain admin, these are just dumped.  I think the abuse@
>addresses are provided just to placate irrate spam victims and to give them
>a place to vent their legitimate frustrations with this vile luncheon meat.

Jean, I've had considerable response from bbn-planet, msn, yahoo, hotmail,
geocities and a number of others.  Yahoo in particular has been extremely
prompt in terminating mail accounts and sending me a note of thanks, and
geocities is certainly prompt at terminating accounts used in support of
spam-based operations.

There really are several types of addresses here: Websites actually doing
business, mail accounts used to send spam, smtp servers used to relay spam
from spam-x.com, mail accounts used for supposed opt-out feedback.  I do
get occasional misses from providers, but I've never yet had one come back
and say "it's within our Terms of Service so tough luck."  Mostly I hear
back that the account has been cancelled or that the relaying smtp server
has been secured.  I definitely think it's worth doing even though it's
bailing out the ocean.

http://www.singapore.cnet.com/news/2000/11/03/20001103az.html (text
follows) is an interesting side-note on this.

david

AT&T changes course as spam policy is revealed
  Paul Festa, CNET News.com
  Friday, November 3 2000

  AT&T has yielded to an anti-spam group's request that it stop providing
services to a purported sender of unsolicited commercial email.

  The move came after an English anti-spam organization publicly posted
what it termed a "pink contract" between AT&T and the
  alleged spammer, Nevada Hosting. AT&T had been hosting the group's Web site.

  "This proves that AT&T knowingly does business with spammers and shows
that AT&T makes 'pink' contracts with known spammers
  to not terminate the spammers' services," Steve Linford of The Spamhaus
Project wrote in an email interview.

  AT&T confirmed the authenticity of the contract and said it had been
discontinued.

  "That document represents an unauthorized revision to AT&T's standard
contract and is in direct conflict with AT&T's anti-spamming
  policies," wrote AT&T representative Bill Hoffman. "The agreement has
been terminated, and the customer has been disconnected."

  AT&T's spam policy specifically rules out contracts like the one it
signed with Nevada Hosting.

  Nevada Hosting could not be reached for comment.

  Anti-spam groups have long suspected the existence of pink contracts that
allow spammers to promote their Web sites provided they
  send their unsolicited emails through other Internet service providers,
according to Linford. The AT&T contact confirmed those
  suspicions.

  The Spamhaus Project's success comes as anti-spam groups increasingly
bypass spammers themselves and instead target those who
  facilitate the dissemination of unsolicited commercial email. Those
groups--mostly ISPs and server administrators--are relatively few
  and are easier to hold accountable than spammers.

  Another such pressure group is the Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS),
which maintains the Realtime Blackhole List (RBL). The
  MAPS RBL blacklists servers left open to abuse by spammers. While the
group's stated goal is to pressure server administrators to
  close avenues for spammers, the MAPS RBL has weathered criticism that it
has limited effectiveness in actually blocking spam.

  The Spamhaus Project positions itself as kind of spam Purgatory on the
way to the MAPS RBL. Spamhaus targets entities that send
  spam with forged addresses and the ISPs that do business with them.

  "When it finds a 'stealth' spamming service, or an outfit selling stealth
spamware, The Spamhaus Project sends a notice to the ISP and
  requests the service or site be terminated," Linford wrote. "Ninety-five
percent of spam sites are terminated this way, and those that
  aren't are then escalated to the MAPS RBL team.

  "MAPS are very much our heroes."

  AT&T representatives have taken to Internet discussion forums in an
attempt to placate spam foes and reassure them that the
  company's stated anti-spam policy will be enforced in future contracts.

  "Our sales agents have been instructed as to the correct procedure to
follow and have been reminded of our existing anti-spamming
  policies," AT&T customer care manager Ed Kelley wrote in a posting to the
"news.admin.net-abuse.email" newsgroup. "AT&T is
  making every effort to ensure that this does not occur again in the future."

David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"