MCI Hosts Spam Software Maker

Anti-spam group Spamhaus has accused MCI of hosting a major manufacturer of spam software known as Send Safe. According to Spamhaus, tools like Send Safe have made it easier for spammers to send massive amounts of spam.

MCI says that it doesn't provide services for Send Safe directly, but that one of its bandwidth customers does host their site. MCI has a hands-off policy regarding what their downstream customers provide hosting for. They don't seem to be interested in being part of a larger anti spam solution.

The London Internet Exchange (a major organization of UK ISP's), has caught wind of MCI's policy, and is not happy about it. MCI is indirectly a member of LINX via it's UUNET operation. LINX's own anti spam mail policy dictates that ISP's should disconnect customers who are involved in distributing spamming software.

Spam software and email list packages are frequently sold on ebay to the top bidder. These programs often utilize systems hacked by 'malware' to send their messages. While this may or may not make the software itself illegal, certainly some of the activities it enables are. Messages sent by these zombie computers are commonly harder to stop using anti spam software.

Recently software for sending junk email has proliferated throughout the internet. This has made it extremely easy for amateurs to setup large-scale spam operations - sending millions of emails daily.

SpamButcher provides a free anti spam download for those seeking relief from junk mail messages. The demo version of the software runs for 21-days before needing to be registered. SpamButcher can be used as powerful anti-spam software for Outlook or with most other mail programs.

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