[SI-LIST] Spam friendly URL Shorteners

A recent message to SI-LIST included a url shortened by d-o-i-o-p.c-o-m
(I hope that obfuscation is good enough.)

Spammers are now (ab)using URL shorteners to hide their real domains.  They 
are also setting up URL shortening services specifically for their own 
purposes.

That particular domain name is listed at SURBL and URIBL  Those are the two 
major domain based blacklists (as compared to IP blacklists) so that message 
was probably caught by a lot of spam filters.  For more info see:
  http://www.surbl.org/lists.html
  http://lookup.uribl.com/?domain=doiop.com

It is hosted at 87.98.250.164 which is listed at SBL  Spamhaus/SBL is the 
major blacklist of spammer's  IP Addresses.  For more info see:
  http://www.spamhaus.org/SBL/sbl.lasso?query=SBL76075

I know that tinyurl.com and bit.ly are seriously anti-spam.  That doesn't 
mean that the spammer's can't/don't use them, just that they react fast 
enough so that most spammers use other url shorterning services.  There are 
probably others with good anti-spam policies and track records that I'm not 
familiar with.  (A good policy doesn't count if it isn't enforced.  The spam 
friendly URL shorting services can copy a good policy.  They just snicker 
when a spam complaint arrives, or maybe they have their abuse@ mailbox 
forwarded to a black hole.)

I think it's great when people use URL shorteners, but please include the 
long URL too.  I can (probably) put things back together if the long-long URL 
gets mangled by various mail systems.  But if you don't include it, I can't 
get there if the URL shortening service goes out of business.  That gets 
important if somebody finds your message in the archives a year or 6 from now.

Showing me the (possibly mangled) URL also saves me time if I know that I 
don't want to go to that site.  For example, the IEEE charges for a lot of 
their publications.

Feel free to contact me off list for more info.


-- 
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's.  I hate spam.



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