Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!


Email spam problem. How to deal with such customers?
New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.

All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.

Email spam problem. How to deal with such customers?

stallionstallion Member
edited November 2013 in General

Dear friends,
I run a small web hosting companey. Basically I am reseller and I sell shared hosting.
I got a couple of complaints that one of the clients is email spamming using my web hosting service. The email sender threatened me for action if get spam from my server again. I am a little scared.
It is clearly written in my tos that any kind of activity which is illigal in USA isnt allowed on my hosting. So obviously what my client is doing is illegal.
But I do not want to lose the customer. Even if I have to do that then I do not want to annoy that person because that could lead to that client post on forums and will give a bad name to my site.
Is there any way I can just disable the email facility on this one account?
If not then please suggest how should I deal with the matter?

Thanks

«1

Comments

  • rds100rds100 Member
    edited November 2013

    Spammers should be shot at first sight, just as terrorists. No negotiations.

  • terafireterafire Member
    edited November 2013

    You need to bite the bullet and terminate the spammer. Not only is he sending out illegal spam, he's also going to get your mailserver IP blacklisted and that will cause more problems than the small amount of money is he paying you is worth.

    Thanked by 1stallion
  • Thanks guys I will suspend that account right now before my reseller suspends my account. :)

  • Give them first and last warning for their spamming activities, if they still do it then shutting down

  • what about the daily sending limit or hourly limit ...

    http://forums.cpanel.net/f5/problem-mailman-whms-limit-mail-sends-per-hour-35153.html#post171701

    here is some details ... i don't know more about it ...

  • @stallion Are you BuyVM control panel? :p

  • aglodekaglodek Member
    edited November 2013

    @stallion said: Is there any way I can just disable the email facility on this one account? If not then please suggest how should I deal with the matter?

    Why disable? Maybe start off by limiting the number of emails each account can send out per hour? Also good idea to post information about this on your website. This should discourage spammers, as your service will not be much use to them. If there is a problem account, you can always tweak it (i.e. further lower the number of emails they can send per hour). Make sure this is reflected in your TOS. As for how to set such limits, well, that depends on the MTA you are using...

  • @budi1413
    Its not a VPS. I am on cpanel/WHM and it is a reseller account.
    @aglodek

    For some reason the server owner doesn't allow me to change the email limit settings. They have disabled that function.
    Anyways I have suspended the trouble maker account. Feeling much better now. :)

  • Why would you worry about terminating a spammer from your system? No matter what money he brings you, sooner or later he will cause more damage than you ever got profit from him.

    @aglodek said:
    Why disable? Maybe start off by limiting the number of emails each account can send out per hour?

    Do you believe it's ok if the spammer sends out spam distributed over a period of hours/days, than minutes?

    They should be terminated without bargaining. I get half a dozen mails every week which escape gmail spam rules/my filters. These arent typically learnt by gmail, and I take the time to check the X-headers, trace the IP to the provider/DC, and shoot an abuse email to them. They're reminded gently that they should take action, also adding that without their action, their IP would be reported to spam databases. Most hosts respond. If they dont, their DC usually does. If you're a reseller and one of your customers did this, and got reported to your upstream provider, they'd probably terminate you with sufficient proof.

  • budi1413budi1413 Member
    edited November 2013

    stallion said: Its not a VPS.

    You don't get my point. -_- Btw, spammer just need to be executed. :D

  • @budi1413 said:
    You don't get my point. -_- Btw, spammer just need to be executed. :D

    They call themselves email marketers :p

  • @joelgm said: Do you believe it's ok if the spammer sends out spam distributed over a period of hours/days, than minutes? They should be terminated without bargaining...

    No, I don't believe it's okay. I was suggesting a comprehensive approach to all clients. Next, individual clients abusing this setup should be asked to respond to any abuse complaint. Failing that (within a reasonable period of time, say, 24 hours), they should be terminated with no refund. Good idea to set forth such clear rules prominently in the TOS to discourage signups by potential spammers.

  • @stallion said: For some reason the server owner doesn't allow me to change the email limit settings. They have disabled that function...

    Wow! Get a KVM (VPS) and get full control of your business ;)

  • In the same note, how does one deal with clients that are clueless about their account being used to send spam or host phishing sites? Some clients just install wordpress and don't update it and hackers use exploits to upload all kinds of stuff.

    Totally agree with the one who said spammers should be shot! They are the scum of the internet, spoiling everything for others.

  • you get a half a dozen mail spams in a week and you find time to Submit a complaint - do you have a life..

    @joelgm said:
    Why would you worry about terminating a spammer from your system? No matter what money he brings you, sooner or later he will cause more damage than you ever got profit from him.

    They should be terminated without bargaining. I get half a dozen mails every week which escape gmail spam rules/my filters. These arent typically learnt by gmail, and I take the time to check the X-headers, trace the IP to the provider/DC, and shoot an abuse email to them. They're reminded gently that they should take action, also adding that without their action, their IP would be reported to spam databases. Most hosts respond. If they dont, their DC usually does. If you're a reseller and one of your customers did this, and got reported to your upstream provider, they'd probably terminate you with sufficient proof.

  • @painfreepc said:
    you get a half a dozen mail spams in a week and you find time to Submit a complaint - do you have a life..

    How long do you think it takes to send 6 emails?

  • Set a firewall rule to only allow so many outbound SMTP connections per an IP over some duration of time.

    Thanked by 1jimpop
  • @MassNodes said:
    Set a firewall rule to only allow so many outbound SMTP connections per an IP over some duration of time.

    Sounds good at first, but spam is spam, even if it only comes once a year.

  • AlexanderMAlexanderM Member, Top Host, Host Rep

    Its possible its an infected script etc

  • On one side, limiting the amount of emails per hour helps, on the other it can also make your
    clients complain about limits (specially in case they use mailing lists).

    Another choice using cPanel is limiting by defered amount per our and they'll get the "domain.tld_cctld has exceeded the max defers and failures per hour".

    Cheers!

  • i 2nd this, before i start doing the vps thing i had an account at hostgator, about a year ago i installed Elgg ( a social networking software ) someone found a way to send 1,000's of email spam using my Elgg account, hostgator almost terminated my account.

    @AlexanderM said:
    Its possible its an infected script etc

  • It's possible to use iptables to limit the rate on port 25. Look into that if you like.

  • Your decision to make an instant kill with the spamer was right.

    Your next step should be to restrict the maximal amount of mails per client in a time frame. Your hoster who provides your reselling account will help you since every good hoster wants to keep out spam out of ther network.

    If you still get abuse notifications in future suspend and delete your costumer who is responsible for that right away.

    If you have a costumer which was hacked and used as a victim by third parties suspend the account and give them time to fix it or offer to fixit yourself for money.

  • The spammer opened this ticket today.

    Hello

    We don't sent any mail from your server so how can you suspend my account.
    Please re-active my hosting account or refund my money.

    Thanks

    So he has been using my service for spamming for about 15 days and now he wants a refund. So basically its a win win situation for these "email marketers". Sign up for any cheap hosting accounts and spam the $^&* out of the internet and if the host stops you then ask for refund or make a charge back. Its a perfect world. :(

  • rskrsk Member, Patron Provider

    stallion said: So he has been using my service for spamming for about 15 days and now he wants a refund. So basically its a win win situation for these "email marketers". Sign up for any cheap hosting accounts and spam the $^&* out of the internet and if the host stops you then ask for refund or make a charge back. Its a perfect world. :(

    imperfect* .. thats the word :P

  • you get a half a dozen mail spams in a week and you find time to Submit a complaint - do you have a life..

    it takes a few seconds to copy and paste an email into Spamcop.net's 'report spam' form :)

  • @stallion said:
    The spammer opened this ticket today.

    So he has been using my service for spamming for about 15 days and now he wants a refund. So basically its a win win situation for these "email marketers". Sign up for any cheap hosting accounts and spam the $^&* out of the internet and if the host stops you then ask for refund or make a charge back. Its a perfect world. :(

    Alternatively, they didn't send anything. Could be a compromised website, wordpress add-on, etc… and they have been hacked.

    What investigation did you do before terminating the account?

  • @stallion said:
    The spammer opened this ticket today (...)

    This is where those clear rules and TOS, I mentioned earlier, come into play. Prevention first: you try to discourage such people from signing up (many of them read the small print!). Failing this, you have a clearly laid out policy: abuse complaint + no resolution = termination. This is your protection against chargebacks.

  • DalCompDalComp Member
    edited November 2013

    First of all, you received a threat from outside party saying that one of your client is involved in spamming. Did you verify this information? Is the sender a trustworthy party, and not just some random guy who want to interfere with your client's business? Did you confirm with your provider for logs, etc.?

    If you are certain the information is valid, send your evidence to your client and refuse refund request for TOS violation.

    Additionally, if you have the logs you may perhaps identify if there is a certain script causing the issue. I find this a lot in insecure wordpress installations, weak passwords, outdated themes & plugins, nulled scripts, etc. It depends on your policy how you would deal with hacked client's account. Maybe you can just kick the client on the basis that account security is client's responsibility, or you can keep the client and suggest security improvements, password changes, wordpress reinstalls, etc. It is better to discuss this with your provider and align with their policy.

  • stallion said: So he has been using my service for spamming for about 15 days and now he wants a refund.

    You should have canceled and refunded on day one. Then he wouldn't be spamming for 15 days.

Sign In or Register to comment.