Hello.

This morning I'm writing in the BLOG out of frustration.  Yesterday I was told that some of our customers are getting emails returned.  The returned message reports that they are a spammer, or their email is blocked.

This is because an organization called www.spamhaus.org added one of the Website Forge mail server IP addresses to their "spammer list".  Spamhaus is a widely used source for identifying and stopping spam mail.  Just about any spam filter may use them to help avoid spam.

Why did we end up in this evil list?  It's because one of our Website Forge customers purchased a list of emails and mass mailed it.  He did not do it with the intent to spam, I'm sure the place that sold him the list assured him that the list was a list of "opt in users" and a great list.  Then he was probably convinced that it was "Legal" to spam if he added a few key items to his email.

Well, let me tell you first hand.  There is no "Legal SPAM".  Here is the rule -- If you did not obtain the email address from a person directly through your web site, then do not use the email address.  It's that simple.

- Do not  buy ANY lists.  I don't care if Pope Benedict himself swears the list is clean and legal!
- Do not visit web sites and harvest email addresses.
- Do not pay a company to do it all from their own "special spam servers" (Spamhaus.com will do a reverse  lookup on your domain and STILL block our servers)

Better yet, if you have even the smallest inkling to send any type of mass mail -- Call me first!  E-mail support@websiteforge.com or visit live chat and ask to get in touch with me. 

Please understand that though this customer thought he was "following the law", thousands of Website Forge customers are potentially affected by this issue.  In extreme cases we have to take the "offending customer" offline to get our IP removed from the spam list.  I don't want anyone to experience any type of hassle sending email for any reason.

I emailed the situation to someone at SpamHaus and they are so arrogant and unforgiving that he only replied once in 24 hours and he did not yet remove the block.  I am stuck waiting for this guy to check his email and hope he believes me when I tell him the spam issue has been resolved.  It's ridiculous (don't get me started on how these spam organizations conduct themselves).

I will work non-stop until this issue is resolved and send an update.

Shane Merem
www.websiteforge.com
Website Design and E-Commerce