From: "! Drive" <drink@aa.net>
Date: Sun, 6 Oct 1996 01:44:53 +0800
To: <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Re: Who the heck is "CYBERPROMO" and why are they spamming me?
Message-ID: <199610051503.IAA11579@ws6.aa.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Here's a note I got when trying to reply to some JUNK mail I got...


Version 9-30-96:


Cyber Promotions has started to implement stricter Terms of Service
policies WITH TEETH.  We have just recently terminated several accounts for
abuse of our policies.  (Updated TOS at end of message).

The following email accounts have been *recently TERMINATED...

*changes@answerme.com         9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses
*changes@cyberpromo.com       9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses
*changes@savetrees.com        9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*catalog@savetrees.com        9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses
*catalog@cyberpromo.com       9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses
*catalog@answerme.com         9-30-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*eleven@answerme.com          9-28-96: Forgeries
*eleven@savetrees.com         9-28-96: Forgeries
*eleven@answerme.com          9-28-96: Forgeries

*tsahk@cyberpromo.com         9-27-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses
*tsahk@answerme.com           9-27-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

*icssender@omni.cyberpromo.com   9-19-96: FORGED unsolicited email, making
it appear that Cyberpromo's auto-sender was responsible.  If you are in
receipt of the message, please look through the headers and complain to the
appropriate postmasters.

networkes@answerme.com       9-17-96: Ignored remove requests
networkes@cyberpromo.com     9-17-96: Ignored remove requests
networkes@savetrees.com      9-17-96: Ignored remove requests
reminders@answerme.com       9-17-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses
reminders@savetrees.com      9-17-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses
reminders@cyberpromo.com     9-17-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses

salespromo@answerme.com      9-16-96: Unsolicited ads to INTERNET addresses
salespromo@savetrees.com     ""  ""         ""  ""
salespromo@cyberpromo.com    ""  ""         ""  ""
promo@answerme.com           ""  ""         ""  ""
promo@savetrees.com          ""  ""         ""  ""
promo@cyberpromo.com         ""  ""         ""  ""
info4free@answerme.com       ""  ""         ""  ""
info4free@savetrees.com      ""  ""         ""  ""
info4free@cyberpromo.com     ""  ""         ""  ""

manda@cyberpromo.com      8-28: Massive abuse to INTERNET addresses / FORGERY
manda@answerme.com        8-28: Massive abuse to INTERNET addresses / FORGERY
website@cyberpromo.com    8-27: excessive abuse to AOL / removals ignored
sevenmil@cyberpromo.com   8-27: excessive abuse / all removals ignored
sevenmil@answerme.com     8-27: ""     ""      ""     ""     ""    ""
vera@cyberpromo.com
vera@answerme.com
zol@answerme.com
website@answerme.com
allied@cyberpromo.com
allied@answerme.com
lists@cyberpromo.com
lists@answerme.com


If you have a complaint about an account that was not listed above, please
forward it to our President's personal account:  wallace@cyberpromo.com

We currently operate the following servers:
answerme.com
cyberpromo.com
omni.cyberpromo.com
gamut.cyberpromo.com

We DO NOT operate the following servers:
uunet
interramp
athens.servint
cais
postman.com
powernet
pwrsite


Cyber Promotions is *not* in business to annoy people.  We are in the
business of sending (and assisting in sending) commercial (and
noncommercial) email to people who are *not* offended by the receipt of
these messages.  Unfortunately, due to many experiences (many of which were
out of our control) we have had some problems accomplishing our goals
without upsetting some people.  We are truly sorry about that fact, and we
plan to "clean up the streets" as best as we can.

Some people have been under the impression that all email that appears to
come from cyberpromo.com, is from Cyber Promotions.  That is not true.
Most of the complaints that we have recently received have been in reaction
to people who have "autoresponders" and "virtual email addresses" on our
system.  In that case, their mail would have referenced an account on our
system, but originated from a different site.  Unfortunately, software like
Pegasus enables their mail to appear as if it came from us, driectly.  But,
their true origination is still evident in the headers.  You can determine
where it originated if you know how to decode headers.  But when doing so,
remember that Pegasus, for example, actually logs into *our* sendmail.  At
this time, the only messages that originate from Cyber Promotions, use our
proprietary Cyber Sender 2.1+ protocol which will always be indicated in
the organization: header.

Due to these "look alikes," it could appear that recipients' remove request
were being ignored.  WE DO NOT IGNORE REMOVE REQUESTS.

We now also maintain a "master" remove list of people who have asked to be
removed from all commercial mailing lists.  If you have received an email
from "Cyber Sender 2.1+", our new proprietary transport agent protocol,
then the remove features *do* work properly, now that all of the bugs have
been fixed (uppercase and lowercase now match, too).  No mail is allowed
out of our system, if the recipient's address is in our master remove list.
We currently have over 1.1 million email addresses in that file.  If you
wish to add your address to that master remove list, you can do so in two
different ways.  1.  You can send an email to remove@cyberpromo.com and
type "REMOVE ALL" in the subject or message field.  Our systems will
automatically permanently remove from our system the email address from
which you sent your request.  2.  You may also send an email to
manremove@cyberpromo.com and type as many email addresses as you wish in
the body of the message, each on its own line, without any comments.  The
subject line is ignored.  That address will also permanently remove the
addresses.  Please note: we have no control over mail that originates from
other sites, that travel through our SMTP (relay-host) servers.  We will
simply terminate any accounts that we maintain, that is referred to in
their abusive mail.


ATTENTION PRODIGY MEMBERS:
It has come to Cyber Promotions' attention, that some of you are having a
major problem removing yourselves from our lists.  This can be attributed
to the "alias" that your outgoing mail may contain.  If you are having
problems, please send an email to manremove@cyberpromo.com and type both of
your email addresses in the body of the message, each on its own line,
without any comments.  The subject line is ignored.  You probably have one
address like xazd35r@prodigy.com and another address like
sanford@prodigy.com.


ATTENTION PIPELINE MEMBERS:
It has come to Cyber Promotions' attention, that some of you are having a
major problem removing yourselves from our lists.  This can be attributed
to the "alias" that your outgoing mail may contain.  If you are having
problems, please send an email to manremove@cyberpromo.com and type your
email addresses in the body of the message, each on its own line, without
any comments.  The subject line is ignored.  You should type your email id
followed by the following THREE domains.   @usa.pipeline.com,
@pipeline.com,  @nyc.pipeline.com.  Even if you feel that your address is
definately only one of the three possibilities, you should still remove all
three addresses (each on its own line).


ATTENTION INTERNET USERS:
It has come to Cyber Promotions' attention, that some of you are having a
major problem removing yourselves from our lists.  This can be attributed
to the "alias" that your outgoing mail may contain.  If you are having
problems, please send an email to manremove@cyberpromo.com and type your
email addresses in the body of the message, each on its own line, without
any comments.  The subject line is ignored.  If your email address could
contain an alias like mail.domain.com or if you may have more that one
email address that points to another email address, you should remove them
all.  If you wish to remove *every* email address in your domain, please
contact us, and we will "grep" out every possibility.




REVISED TERMS OF SERVICE:

(We are also looking into the possibility that we may be forced to adopt
the policies of our backbone providers.  For the time being, we are
emulating their policies as best as we can while matching the needs of our
operations.)


1. We do not allow postings to inappropriate
newsgroups with reference to your account
because such postings result in *MUCH* more negative
response than positive.

2. We prohibit the advertising of offensive material
(ie. pornography, weapons, etc).

3. You may not use the account to participate in
illegal activities.

4. Our TOS strictly prohibits the sending of mass commercial
emails to INTERNET addresses, unless expressed permission
has been granted to you by the recipient.
In addition, you *must* honor all requests for removal
from your mailing list in a diligent manner.
Our service can be used in conjunction with advertisements that
you place with a bulk email company other than your
own or us, as long as they follow the same guidelines.

5.  Cyber Promotions reserves the right to terminate any account for any
reason at any time, without notice.


If you would like to send a complaint about any account @cyberpromo.com or
@answerme.com or @omni.cyberpromo.com  that has not been terminated, please
send email to: wallace@cyberpromo.com


----------
: From: Ernest Hua <hua@chromatic.com>
: To: cypherpunks@toad.com
: Cc: hua@chromatic.com
: Subject: Who the heck is "CYBERPROMO" and why are they spamming me?
: Date: Saturday, October 05, 1996 12:25 AM
: 
: I keep getting mail from an "abusebot@savetrees.com" ...
: 
: This is getting very very annoying.
: 
: Ern