Is There Any Reason to Report Spammers to ISPs?

marko_ramius asks: "For years I've been a good netizen and reported spam that I get to the appropriate contacts at various ISPs. In the entire time that I've done this I've gotten (maybe) 5 or 6 responses from those ISPs informing me that they have taken action against the spammer. In recent years however, I haven't gotten any responses. Are the ISP's so overwhelmed with abuse reports that they aren't able to respond to the spam reports? Do they even bother acting on said reports? Is there any real reason to report spammers?"

Comments

Yes

[YGingras]

... but it's rarely worth the effort. Just repport to your favorite real time block list and we'll thank you.

Please continue!

[J. T. MacLeod]

I work for a regional ISP.

We frequently receive notifications of spam email as well as virus-laden email that has originated from our network. We only respond to the sender if they request that we do (and even then, if it's not necessary and the request isn't polite, we may not).

That means we almost never send a reply to the person who notified us. However, we DO take care of every single notification we receive. If we aren't able to immediately contact the customer and fix the issue (generally a home user with a virus doing the spamming), then we either shut off their service or, more frequently, block outgoing connections from their IP to port 25 anywhere.

Please don't let the silence discourage you. We're hard at work and appreciate the notices that help us keep our networks and services running smoothly for our customers.

Re:Definitely report if you have clue

[Mister J]

As long as the reports go to someone who is smart enough to understand those things, the reports can help.

If they go to the wrong person, all that serves to do is annoy someone who has absolutely nothing to do with the spam and can't do anything to fix it. Such emails are usually the most inflammatory, so hackles are already up before you waste time verifying that the original spam was indeed nothing to do with us. Plus, like the boy who cried wolf, every one of these makes you that little bit less inclined to care about the real spam reports that come in. Oh, and forget replying to such messages - I learned long ago that "It's nothing to do with us" is rarely an answer they're interested in hearing, no matter how politely you put it and how detailed your explanation of "this is why and here's who's really responsible" is.

Re:Dont bother - they're in on the racket

[Anonymous Coward]

ISP's are not common carriers and never have been. When will this myth die!?!