---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 14:42:56 +0900 From: Glenn Barry Subject: MEDIA: Sydney Morning Herald - Telstra Blacklist Story. Posted just for the record and future reference: http://www.smh.com.au/news/0008/28/bizcom/bizcom1.html ============================= Telstra on black list because of spamming Junk mail over the Net arouses strong passions. Kevin Morrison explores the issues. Telstra has long boasted that it wants to become a major player in the Internet world butmany in cyberspace accuse Telstra of harbouring the Internet community's number one enemy, spammers. "Spam" unsolicited emails have become the vehicle of 21st century snake-oil salesmen, offering various schemes and services, to millions of recipients. Spam clogs up email in-boxes, slows down Internet traffic and overloads the systems of Internet service providers, hence the unpopularity of its perpetrators. "They can really cause havoc because systems get overloaded and it is impossible to get off a spam list, so people get annoyed as the junk can take hours to clear," said one Internet user, who did not want to be named because of concerns that he would be targeted by spammers. Being the telecommunications carrier that transports the spam, Telstra has landed in hot water among the Internet community. Over the past three months Telstra has been among the most unpopular Internet organisations on "anti-spam" information Web site Spamcop (web address http://spamcop.net). "Telstra serves a country of 20 million people and yet it has been the most complained about network for several months. So Telstra has not got a good reputation in the Internet world," the Internet user said. Anti-spam groups such as ORBS and MAPS have formed to fight these rogues of the Net, with a mission to drive them off the Internet. The most effective way to do that is to cut off links to the telecommunications operator that allows spammers to connect to their network. The anti-spam groups have achieved some measure of success. In March US Internet backbone carrier AGIS (Apex Global Internet Services) was forced into bankruptcy after it became an outcast in the Internet community over its refusal to rid its network of spammers. "The anti-spam organisations should not be underestimated," the Internet user said. Last week ORBS temporarily put a black ban on Telstra, which meant that the 200 plus Internet service providers that subscribe to ORBS from around the world would not receive email coming from the Telstra network. Given that Telstra is the largest carrier of Internet traffic in Australia that means a lot of emails sent last week were bounced back to their senders, including messages sent from The Sydney Morning Herald email system to New Zealand-based ORBS administrator Mr Alan Brown. Mr Brown said Telstra had been put on the ORBS black list because of its slowness to disconnect notorious spammers. Mr Brown said Telstra's treatment of two alleged spammers, Mr Phil Basten and Mr Dean Westbury, who are directors of company named Global Web Solutions, had triggered the ORBS action. Telstra spokesman Mr Stuart Gray acknowledged the two men were spammers and that Telstra had cut their connection to its Big Pond service. Despite Telstra claims that the pair were disconnected, Messrs Basten and Westbury were still operating late last week. "They are playing the game of multiple names, multiple identities, and they keep on popping up. But it is hard to know that they are going to be spammers when they first set up," Mr Gray said. The two men are also being watched by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. "We are monitoring some of the activities of these gentlemen," an ASIC spokeswoman said. However, Mr Basten told the Herald that he was not a spammer and that he and Mr Westbury provided Web-hosting services and programs that allowed customers to bulk mail. He said that some of his customers appeared to be spammers. "We didn't know anything about it. It looks like there are four out of about 100 customers that have been spamming and we had no way of knowing. "The first thing I knew about it was when Telstra closed down our service and that has cost us a lot of money. So I am going to get our lawyers and try and get that money back from Telstra," Mr Basten said. A Telstra spokesman said that they had enough evidence to prove that Mr Basten and Mr Westbury were spammers. Australia's Internet carriers have not been as active as their US counterparts in stamping out spamming. In the US, where spamming activities first started, ISPs have become more active in cutting spammers from their network, issuing heavy fines and strict conditions that customers must adhere to. Both Telstra and Optus claim to have stringent anti-spam policies on their networks, prohibiting users from carrying out "unacceptable Internet behaviour such as spamming." However, Mr Brown said both carriers had been very slow to react to spamming. "Optus have not responded to any complaints that I have made to them. The Cable & Wireless group worldwide has a bad reputation in the Internet community where they are known as Clueless and Witless," Mr Brown said. With the Internet increasingly moving to wireless platforms, such as WAP on mobile phones, spamming is expected to spread even further unless carriers jump on it. With several carriers expected to participate in the mobile Internet space, the choices will increase for spammers. --------- To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog