Unsolicited Email and the ECIS name
ECIS has a very strong anti-spam policy. ECIS is ABSOLUTELY AGAINST the sending of unsolicited email. It is not only a violation of our Terms of Service Agreement, it is in many cases illegal and a violation of common sense and decency. ECIS terminates accounts that are found to have spammed, though it has rarely happened with our users. ECIS does not allow online/unmonitored purchasing of our internet accounts, and we require all new accounts to be verified before they are given access.
ECIS's Name:
Because of our aggressive history in dealing with spammers and others responsible for the garbage flooding our mail boxes, ECIS has become a target. Spammers POSING as ECIS are forging the email address and/or the header information in an effort to redirect the victim's JUSTIFIED wrath. Our boxes are flooded with email daily from angry victims wanting us to address what they believe to be one of our users. You may have been directed here in response to such a message. Please rest assured We are NOT responsible for this email, it has never originated from our servers nor passed through our servers at any time. You can verify this by looking at the Header information of any spam message you receive. Look at the IP addresses, this is very important. Do Not go off who they say they are, they lie (no surprise there). Go off the of IP ADDRESSES ONLY. If you need help reading a header, please go to: http://www.rahul.net/falk/mailtrack.html they have some good info there on reading the headers appropriately. Our name is being used illegally and without our consent or acknowledgment of any rights to it. ECIS is also addressing this abuse in the civil court system as needed.
Open Relay:
Open relay is a method by which someone can freely send mail from one provider through another (a chain of sorts), thereby masking their real identity even further and making discovery even more difficult. We have NEVER been an open relay service, in fact we only allow relay in cases where domain requirements exist. We do not even relay for our paying customers that use DSL, Cable, or other ISP access. We feel that open relay is unnecessary. As a proud Member of the California Internet Service Provider Association (CISPA), we are in contact with many other ISP's on a regular basis. We ask and encourage all ISP's in CISPA and across the world to disallow open relay. Help keep the internet under control WITHOUT government or outside intervention. Be responsible and accountable, hold our customers likewise responsible and accountable.
What can be done:
ECIS feels strongly that 2 things need to occur. One we mentioned earlier, the removal of Open Relay from the system. The second depends on our government. We don't need more laws, WE NEED ENFORCEMENT. Politicians are grandstanding and making noble laws and statements about how spam is illegal. Some states have laws that have fines attached to offenders, some have jail terms, etc.. etc.. etc.. In every case, nobody has appointed an agency that YOU, or the ISP can turn to. If we called the police, FBI, sheriffs, etc.. they would just laugh at us. They don't see the burden this is placing on our systems and lives, and it is a tremendous burden indeed. Much of the major flood of Spam originates from a relatively small number of offenders. ECIS researches the spam complaints you send, and we ARE working with some Federal Officials. We are lucky (if you want to call it that) that the spammers have caused Denial of Service (DOS) attacks on our system. This IS a federal offense and one that the FBI can follow-up on. We are working with the FBI technology crimes department out of Hayward California in collecting and tracking information on the offenders. Due to this investigation, we are well aware of the difficulties our law enforcement faces on these issues.
What now:
If you receive any future spam with our name attached, please feel free to forward it immediately. We WILL investigate. It is important that any complaint you send must contain the full header of the original email. This information is vital to researching the emails origination. Without it, your complaint will be added to the investigation, but cannot be researched or validified.
Contact your Local Congressman and let him know that you want your privacy respected. Remember they are in a difficult spot too. On one side, the unscrupulous and manipulative spammer says he has the freedom of speech to infringe on your privacy, while on the other side you and I are tired of being victims of the garbage that is coming into our mail box with NO accountability, no valid information, and in some cases illegal and immoral content. ECIS feels there is a difference between freedom to solicit, and the purposeful deception without accountability.
Secondly, we encourage you to use ISP's that DO NOT participate in open relay. Simple, and clear cut.
Inform the REAL sending ISP of the problem customer. Remember this as well, we don't read our customers mail. We don't scan it or otherwise censor it. Many ISP's respect your privacy too much to decide FOR YOU what mail you should receive. They will not know you are offended unless you TELL them. The ISP will then address the customer according to their rules and terms of service. In our case, that is dismissal from our service. We also ask you to only support only ISP's that have such contracts. Keep in mind that they did not send the email. I cannot tell you how much hate has been directed towards us because people fall for the lies these spammers are spreading about us.
Encourage ISP's to verify their new accounts as being legitimate information given. In almost all cases, the spammers identified used stolen credit card information and bogus phone/address information. By requiring that this information be verified first, ECIS has identified and prohibited several spammers BEFORE they spammed. Sure it takes a little work, but countless people were NOT spammed by one of our customers because of this effort. That makes it worthwhile. Other ISP's should be doing the same.
ECIS can be contacted at the following:
East County Internet Services (ECIS)
1612 A Street, Antioch CA 94509
Office: 925-706-4280
Fax: 025-706-4282
email: abuse@ecis.com