The main problem with these types of service is that no one governs them. I could set one up tomorrow and list whoever I liked. Of course, you’d have to chose to use my list with your systems.

Most of these services make it fairly painless to be removed so although inconvenient it’s not the end of the world if you are listed in error, and indeed if you are an open relay then it can be a justified kick up the backside. However, there are some real cowboys out there.

Today we’ve found one of our gateways listed with such a cowboy http://www.us.sorbs.net/. I’ve scanned the box for Trojans and viruses with 2 different products and have thrown every relay test I know against it. Nada. So how did it get listed? SORBS claim that our box sent an email (not a spam, just a regular email) to one of its honey trap addresses. That’s just plain crazy. It could have been an NDR or virus notification in response to a message that spoofed the SORBS address. To make things worse SORBS want a fine to have our box de-listed. This fine is in the form of a donation which I guess gets them round any extortion charges. What a joke.

I’m even more shocked to find a company like Vodafone uses this list as part of their anti-spam measures. Their admins should be shot.

That’s my rant over for now. I need to get back to getting de-listed.