The Mail Abuse Prevention System Inc. (MAPS) has developed a new list of accused spam violators.
The Non-Confirming Mailing List is a database of (IP) computer addresses that are sending e-mail to people who have not actively given their permission to receive it.
Subscribers to MAPS look to the non-profit to alert them to problem sites where commercial or bulk mail is coming from, said Anne Mitchell, director of legal and public affairs at the Redwood City, CA, group.
Organizations that land on the new list have been reported to MAPS for sending e-mail messages that the recipient has not actively approved. By MAPS' standard, active approval means the recipient receives a request and then replies by e-mail back giving permission to receive subsequent e-mails.
The new list contains perhaps several thousand IP addresses, but it changes every day because it is updated in real time, Mitchell said.
MAPS does not list an IP address "unless we have evidence that there is a problem," Mitchell said. The person making the complaint also has to prove they had tried to address the problem with the sender of the e-mail.
Then the company that sent the e-mail is contacted and given a chance to resolve the problem. Timeframes for resolution differ for each situation, Mitchell said.
"It's only after the recipient and we have tried diligently to get the problem solved, do we put them on the list," she added.
