>Most ISPs (even those that you pay) are so desperate for signups that they
>will activate your account before doing a full verification of information
>like banking information. You can call them, have an account in 10 minutes,
>spend the next 36 hours spamming, and then when you are cut off, call back
>with different information and start all over again. This is called a
>"whack-a-mole" account, since every time you hit them on the head they pop
>up somewhere else like the carnival game.
Then this is a problem with their policy in signups and should be
addressed THERE and not in causing problems and heartache for the rest of
their customers.
I mean, let's think this through. They force all customers to go through
a redirect to port 25. Great, now they increased the load of their mail
machine, piss off customers, but themselves at risk of legal action, and what
have they gained? Nothing. When the see the load, they cancel the account
and the spammer just gets a new one. If anything, all they have done is
shorten the cycle, nothing more. That isn't worth it.
The last ISP I worked for had a simple policy. If you're paying by
credit card, ya got on. If you were being billed, you had to fill out an
application and return it. Credit cards can be verified online with ease. I
should know, I just dropped $40 in the last week on an on-line card game.
Registered and bought cards online in less than 5 minutes from the page
loading. Applications, well, they check before activating the account. That
retains most of the speed since most people do sign-up by credit card anyway.
>At one of my employers, we chased a single person for 9 months while they
>did this.
Again, a policy problem they should address.
- --
Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
ICQ: 5107343 | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
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