[Techtalk] Apache, abuse and nonexistent domains.

[Mary]

On Tue, Feb 25, 2003, Dan Richter wrote:
> I would love to be able to write a Perl script to automatically find
> the appropriate person to e-mail. Is that possible, or are there too
> many different possible cases?

The tech contact isn't always the best person - it is the person or
group in charge of the DNS, which depending on the size of the ISP might
not be the same people who deal with complaints about customers.

I'd like to caution against sending complaints automatically (digging up
the address automatically I have no problems with), just based on the
following case:

I sent a legitmate on-topic mail to an announce list I was on. Someone's
script decided it was spam and mailed me to say "stop spamming me, this
is abusive and unlawful, I want your account shut down".

It *also* mailed every postmaster at every domain mentioned in my
Received headers asking that my account be shut down.

Given that some ISPs will act firmly and close accounts permanently
without bothering to actually investigate, corroborate or confirm
problems with spamming or hack attempts, I think it's a little unfair to
have a script automatically complain about someone without at least
eyeballing the logs each time.

-Mary