I HATE spam email. And, based on my experience, Microsoft has now become the biggest provider of network access to spammers. And they clearly do NOT want to stop them. If they do, they are really doing a poor job and that is both disappointing and surprising. In spite of the clear fact that the tech industry decided in the past that they were welcome to invade our privacy, I resent the idea of anyone presuming that it is OK to send me as much junk email as they want. These emails are coming to my email address on my computers and into my home. And, I am NOT going to change the primary email address that I have had for nearly twenty years because of these worthless turds.
A couple of years ago, I went on a rampage against the spammers. I started looking up the providers of the originating IP’s listed in the email headers. Virtually all of them have “abuse” email addresses for the very purpose of reporting bad behavior. I have sent abuse reports to just about every network provider on earth. A while after starting this, I started getting a ton of spam from Amazon AWS downstream customers. I ended up sending them (Amazon AWS) over 400 abuse reports (and some to Amazon SES as well). They even emailed me and asked me to stop sending them. I refused. BUT I have to give them credit. They stopped the garbage coming to me and since then I have only seen Amazon AWS pop up a handful of times as the access provider. Late last year, I sent over 100 abuse reports to the folks at Sky Broadband UK. They stopped the abuse in its tracks. I sent a few to the folks at Sendgrid/Twillio. They not only stopped it, but they also sent me two emails and ASKED me to continue sending reports to them because they did NOT WANT the garbage on THEIR network. I have even had a couple of providers in Africa that I had never heard of go out of their way to respond and stop the junk.
But MICROSOFT? Last year I started using spamcop.net to report abuse because it was easier on me time-wise. In the summer, I started noticing a ton of abuse reports going to abuse@hotmail.com. I started paying attention as it changed to abuse@microsoft.com. I started tracking the IP addresses and the MAC address of the sender. They had one customer that was sending me bunches of emails EVERY DAY. So, I started duplicating the abuse reports (with full headers) via my own email and in my own words. I copied all of them to the FTC and the FCC. After I got nothing from that, I started copying several Microsoft execs including the head honcho. Got some results from that because a couple of days after I started it, the pig mentioned above sent me over 100 spam emails in two days. Same sender. I listed the IP addresses on a spreadsheet. Mac address for all of them was almost identical (that is, until they started formatting them without the MAC address in the header). The abuse has NOT stopped from Microsoft downstream customers. Right at the first of this year, I started tracking how many spam emails that I received and how many of those were from Microsoft customers. Since the end of December, I have received 154 spam emails (at least the ones that I remembered to count). But, of those 154, 123 of them have come from Microsoft customers. That illustrates that my prior efforts at reporting have paid off. It also illustrates, unfortunately, that Microsoft is BURYING ITS HEAD IN THE SAND AS IT RELATES TO SPAM sent by their downstream customers. I have now personally sent over 530 abuse reports directly to Microsoft and that is only the ones sent AFTER I started keeping track of them. Along with the ones sent to abuse@hotmail.com via spamcop.net, I am certain that Microsoft has received somewhere between 800 and 1000 abuse reports referencing my email address.
Kudos to the folks at Amazon, Sky Broadband, Sendgrid/Twillio, AT&T, Comcast, Charter, and several others, for taking this seriously, showing responsibility and concern, AND FOR TAKING ACTION. Microsoft, on the other hand and based on my experience, acts as though they could not care less. They are doing relatively NOTHING about it. Its as though they care more about a few customers paying them big bucks for network services than they do about MILLIONS of their smaller customers that are dealing with this garbage daily.
SHAME ON YOU MICROSOFT! Although I respect you tremendously and have been a regular customer of yours for many years, I cannot tell you how disappointed I am that you have acted so irresponsibility in this area. WAKE UP! FIX THE PROBLEM!
Edited by Iblayz, 22 January 2023 - 06:41 PM.