OT: Spamcop BL - good or dangerous?

[Matt Kettler]

Gerard Seibert wrote:
> On Wednesday November 29, 2006 at 07:11:36 (AM) Paul Kelly :: Blacknight Solutions wrote:
> 
>> Gerard Seibert wrote:
>>> On Wednesday November 29, 2006 at 06:21:54 (AM) Arthur Sherman wrote:
>>>
>>>> Sometimes I get a message from any of lists I'm subscribed to, that mail to
>>>> my address bounces.
>>>> And as a reason I see Spamcop blocking sender's (legitimate) server.
>>>>
>>>> Here comes the question:
>>>> What would you use instead of Spamcop?
>>>> It gotta be free service, and the more lists the better: right now, Spamcop
>>>> is #1 blocking BL in the logs.
>>>> I am afraid if I drop it, the blocking will be worse.
>>>
>>> SpamCop does not block legitimate servers. I use SpamCop myself.
>> I'm sorry, but that is complete rubbish. SpamCop users blatantly report
>> every and any e-mail they receive even double opt-in mailing lists etc.
>> It is an extremely dangerous BL to use if you wish to get legitimate e-mail.

<snip>
> 
> You are missing the point here. The OP has a misconfigured mailserver.
> That is the primary cause of his/her problems. Correct that problem then
> see what transpires. Given the way they are sending mail, there is a
> good chance that they will be blocked by more than just SpamCop.

While this may be true, you're also missing the main point.

SpamCop *does* list legitimate servers. To believe otherwise is delusional.

Here's some offhand from the short period of time in which I was using spamcop
as a greylist critera:
-------
Yahoo groups:
Nov  5 14:21:15 xanadu milter-greylist: Host 66.163.187.149 exists in DNSRBL
"SPAMCOP" Nov  5 14:21:15 xanadu milter-greylist: Mail
from==evi-inc.com at returns.groups.yahoo.com>, rcpt=<*MUNGED*@evi-inc.com>,
addr=n6a.bullet.sc5.yahoo.com[66.163.187.149] is matched by entry acl 571
greylist dnsrbl "SPAMCOP" [delay 3600]


Amazon:
Nov  6 16:28:21 xanadu milter-greylist: Host 207.171.165.133 exists in DNSRBL
"SPAMCOP"
133.165.171.207.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer mm-retail-out-1101.amazon.com.

-------

And hundreds more in just a few days..

Spamcop used to be very reliable, however recently their FP rate is VERY VERY high..

Their FP rate is so bad that even Justin Mason (creator of SpamAssassin) has
started to advocate not using it at the MTA layer because it so frequently lists
Gmail and other legitimate sources:

http://taint.org/2006/08/17/142116a.html