I have been on quite a journey of discovery over the past 12 months with identifying, reporting, blocking and permanently suppressing spammers. I am finally achieving some results and improving my process too.

To begin with it was quite a laborious process until I discovered SpamCop.net. Taking the raw source of the email and pasting it inside SpamCop means they do a lot of the heavy lifting for me. They identify the source of the email and where the domain is hosted and they will report it direct to those sources. Super easy to do and highly recommended, the service is free. Because it also provides me with the email addresses that they report it to, I will then also email some of them direct as a belt and braces and engage in a direct communication, especially with the email client provider.

This has resulted in a lot of successful unsubscribes, being added to email suppression lists and getting the offender banned from those email services. That last one is a very good feeling.

The only area that is still a real issue is Google's mail servers themselves, but thanks to my communication with some mail client companies they have pointed me in the right direction with that as well.

This is the link to report spammers direct to Google: https://support.google.com/mail/contact/abuse

Let's take one specific example of a spam message I received recently to illustrate how this process works.

This opportunistic spammer does exist on LinkedIn, here, here and here. This is a legitimate company, but I suspect doing some illegitimate things. One of their services is, no surprise, "but we also find data for marketing and business development". I guess I was one of those bits of data they mention on their LinkedIn page!

Step 1: View the raw source code inside the email and copy it.

Step 2: Paste it inside SpamCop and below is the result.

It may look a little daunting at first, but it will improve with practice. The only part you need to worry about is pressing the process button inside SpamCop.

Step 3: I do have a specific email address for Amazon ec2-abuse@amazon.com, who will get back to you if they conclude that the instance has used their servers. I will post the outcome at the end of this article once I hear back from them.

Step 4: As you can see there's also some reference to GoDaddy and they have an email address, but prefer you to add the details to a report form. https://supportcenter.godaddy.com/AbuseReport?

This means sending the email anyway via SpamCop, but then also doing your own report direct with GoDaddy.

Step 5: Report the unsolicited email to the Information Commissioner's Office, other similar organisation are available internationally.

Step 6: If SpamCop also reports that the email has come via a Google server, then I would also complete their form, in this instance it hasn’t come from their servers.

Using these 5 or 6 simple steps has meant that I have been able to significantly reduce my spam and in fact some days, I get zero spam emails. Can you believe it? I can't. I never thought this would be achievable, but it is and does require small but habitual steps every single day. It has just become part of my daily routine and doesn't have to take long at all.

Hope this helps a little and please do get in touch if you need some assistance. I will gladly give you some direction and all it will cost is the price of a Coffee.

Best, M ツ

https://bio.link/stayingaliveuk