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Abuse Reporting Format

J.D. has a great post digging into ARF, the abuse reporting format used by most feedback loops.
If you’re interested in following along, you might find this annotated example ARF report handy.

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I don't have a "this is spam" button

Here at Word to the Wise we have some unique requirements for mail. For instance, I need to be able to receive examples of emails that are being blocked elsewhere in order to do my job. This means not only do we not outsource mail to someone else, we also run limited spam filtering on the server side. It does mean I have to wade through a bit more spam than others do, but that’s generally not a problem. My client side filters do a decent job at keeping most of the crud out of my mailboxes.
My work account gets very little spam in the folder I use as my inbox. I’m not even sure exactly why this is, but it’s true. One of the exceptions is a psychic (no, really) who has a copy of one of my work email addresses and she regularly spams me offering her spiritual guidance and the opportunity to buy her stuff in order to make peace within my world.  I’ve received these before, usually I just delete them and move on.
Occasionally, though, I long for the ease of a “this is spam” button. Just to be able to hit a single button, no work, no effort and know that I have registered my frustration with a spammer. Today was one of those days. I really don’t want this psychic spam in my mailbox. It seems reasonably professionally done, though, so I check the headers to see if it’s being send from any ESP I know and if it’s worth my time to send in a “hey, didn’t sign up for this, and no, I didn’t forget, either” email.
I visited the website belonging to the domain sending the mail.

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Cox FBL update

Delivery mailing lists have been a buzz this week trying to figure out what is going on with the Cox FBL. Someone tried to sign up for the FBL and received a message saying Cox was no longer accepting applications. They forwarded the rejection to some of the mailing lists asking if anyone else had seen a similar message. Panic ensued. Rumors and futile suggestions flew wildly. OK, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but there did seem to be more than a little consternation and confusion about what was going on.
Everyone can stop panicking now.
Yes, Cox did stop accepting new applications for their FBL. They were swamped and overwhelmed with applications and had quite a significant backlog. One of my clients got caught in this backlog. I applied for them back in mid-October and they were just approved last week.
In order to solve the backlog problem, they shut down new applications. They will be working through the current applications and when they’ve approved all the current ones, they will start accepting new ones. I expect that it may be a couple months before they’re accepting applications again.
No need to panic. No need to email lots of people at Cox. No need to contact their FBL provider. Remain calm.
If you were lucky enough to get an application in, they will be getting to it as soon as possible. You will receive an email when you are approved.
If you have already been approved, there will be no interruption in your FBL. You will continue to receive reports during the signup hiatus.

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