Booting Spammers Out of Your Mailing List

Posted by on Sep 25 2006


I’ve noticed a trend lately: a lot of sign-ups to my mailing list from the same IP address. So I did a little research and lo-and-behold, it’s a “zombie” computer automatically signing up for ezines in order to steal the return address when you send the “thanks for signing up” autoresponder. (Those little stinkers!)

So, what do you do?

  • First, check to see if your ezine software captures the IP (internet protocol) address of people when they sign up. I use Professional Cart Solutions (a variant of 1shoppingcart.com), and they DO capture IP addresses of each person who signs up.
  • Next, check for repeat IP addresses. I notice that these sign-ups are always in the “waiting for optin” list under the Manage Clients tab, because they have no intention of opting-in. It’s easy to find them: look for email addresses that don’t match the name they signed up under. For instance, the name is “Mary Jones” but the email address says georgesmith@xxxxxx.com. The email addresses are almost always from hotmail.com, gmail.com, mail.com, or yahoo.com because these are free email services.
  • When you find repeat IP addresses, type the IP address into Google and do some research. For example, this IP address comes up a lot on my wait-list: 203.113.13.3. When I type it into Google, I find that it’s a zombie computer and Wikipedia has blocked it
  • Finally, I go back to my mailing system, and look for the place where I can block specific IP addresses from either ordering from me or from signing up for my mailing lists. In the case of Professional Cart Solutions/1shoppingcart, it’s under the Orders tab.

Voila! Now that zombie can’t sign up for my mailing list anymore!

It takes a little due diligence to keep your list clean, but it’s well worth it. And if your mailing list system won’t let you ban IP addresses, consider switching to a new one.

Related posts:

  1. 10 Ways to Grow Your Mailing List
  2. Be Daring – Ask People to Unsubscribe
  3. The Value of Double Opt-ins
   

3 comments for now

3 Responses to “Booting Spammers Out of Your Mailing List”

  1. # Xarah

    Thanks for the tips. I didn’t know that it is possible to do that.
    I immediately went to my mailing system and checked because I have noticed a lot of requested but not yet confirmed sign ups. No repeat IP addresses! Seamingly no zombies.
    Thanks, Xarah

    26 Sep 2006 at 1:55 pm

  2. # Karyn Greenstreet

    Hi, Xarah,

    I just got some more this morning. Many seem to come from Korea. It’s easy to find them because the email address doesn’t quite seem to match the person’s name, or the person’s name is “ringtones”

    Karyn

    02 Oct 2006 at 1:41 pm

  3. # Xarah

    Found your site again because I was checking my link popularity :-)
    Maybe my site is not that interesting for them spamers LOL
    It’s a good idea to look for the first names. I sorted all the unconfirmed, copied that whole text into excel, sorted again and then went through the names.
    I’ve noticed though a lot of sign ups that have not confirmed … and a lot of double and tripple sign ups. I wonder if that double optin is not clear for every body.

    14 Aug 2007 at 2:02 pm



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