Someone named Darlene, who purports to be secretary to NYX, has been blasting spamcop on co.general for blocking their mail. This FAQ is designed to set the record straight by reviewing her charges and the facts behind them, plus other interesting trivia
Even Darlene has retracted this one, although not apologizing for making the claim.
For the record though, telesp.net.br is Brazil's largest ISP. A google search on the telesp site for DSL IPA's identifies quite a few, as you might imagine. Judge for yourself with these spamcop queries: 200.207.86.146 200.204.143.34 200.158.102.86
Darlene is sticking to this one, while continuing to refuse all demands for proof. Personally, I think they should list blocks, but that is not their methodology. So far as anyone can determine, 206.124.29.22 is the only IPA of NYX that Spamcop has ever listed, although NJABL at least has listed others, after confirming that they were open relays. A dig of NYX netspace identifies just over a half dozen IPA's in the NYX /24 that are actually in use, none of which have been listed in the last 30 days.
When spamcop has more than one IPA in a /24 listed as a spam source (example here), a query on any IPA in that /24 will show other listed IPAs in that /24. In the case of the NYX /24, no other IPA is or has been listed.
No. It will complain about the web page to the host ISP, but it will not list that IPA as a spam source. Think about it. A web server, unless it has an open proxy, doesn't generate email. There is no point in listing a web page in a database designed to block email. Darlene claimed that spamcop listed 206.124.29.118 because of deadmalls.com, and produced as evidence a spamcop report of a spam mentioning deadmalls.com, yet failed to produce evidence that 206.124.29.118 was ever listed by spamcop. She also claimed that this IPA has nothing to do with nyx, forgetting that anyone with ARIN access can and will run a whois on 206.124.29.118 and find out that it belongs to nyx.
Note that Darlene has now retracted this accusation, or at least tried to change it. She no longer claims that Spamcop blacklists IPA's of web pages, but merely that Spamcop reports them to the appropriate ISP. Then she claims that spamcop supporters deny this. Actually, spamcop supporters never denied this. Of course spamcop reports web pages to the appropriate ISP. However, a failure on the part of the ISP to take action on the complaint, while it might lead to a listing by SPEWS or someone else, does not result in a spamcop listing. Duh.
No. Spamcop relies on NJABL, ORDB, and others to test and list open relays, and relies on their listings. According to a Spamcop deputy, ORDB had 206.124.29.22 in its database at the time that Spamcop received the spam complaints. Can this be proven? No, since ORDB does not provide information on historic but closed listings. However, NJABL says that 206.124.29.1 was an open relay, so there is at least some evidence that NYX has been guilty of careless server configuration in the past.
Darlene persists in accusing Spamcop of this, but to date has failed to provide any proof that Spamcop failed to check ORDB, or that ORDB did not have 206.124.29.22 listed on the date in question.
A NYX user reported 26 spams that they got through NYX to spamcop. The NYX user, in reviewing his spam reports, failed to deselect NYX as an at fault party to the spam, earning the listing. Rather than sanctioning the user, or asking Spamcop for innocent bystander status, Darlene decided to go on the war path. However, since a truthful rendition of the facts would have made her look silly, she recognized the need to fabricate stronger accusations, and she did.
Darlene keeps repeating the same accusations, but keeps refusing to post proof to support the accusations. At some point responses get redundant. I'm starting to think that this point has now been reached. I've plonked her. If and when someone responds to any of her posts in a fashion that suggests that someone is actually taking her seriously, I'll post a link to this FAQ. So far, no one has posted a response to her indicating that there is much danger of that.
There is interesting and contradictory information there. Someone named Darlene is filing NYX paperwork with the Colorado Secretary of State in a timely fashion. However, NYX by-laws, found at http://www.nyx.net/~board says that their BOD is elected for one year terms. The same page indicates that the last election was held 3 years ago. That suggests that neither Darlene nor anyone else can properly hold herself out as being a NYX board member.
Also of interest is the fact that Guidestar has no record of a Form 990 ever being filed by NYX, although both they and the IRS do find a NYX registration on IRS form 78. Similarly, they stopped posting financial statements on their board web page in 1999.
Does it really matter? It neither adds to nor subtracts from the credibility of her claims. I merely find it interesting. Assuming that she really is on the BOD, and their web site hasn't been updated in 4 years, it suggests laziness on their part.
Yes. Someone on news.admin.net-abuse.email pointed out that Darlene is not on the membership list of the Colorado Bar Association which caused them to question whether she was really a lawyer. While that makes an interesting statement about her standing in her field, it does not mean that she is not a lawyer. Colorado is not an integrated bar state, so you can be admitted to the bar without being a member of the bar association.
She even has a listing in Findlaw:
Darlene A. Cypser Firm: The Midgard Corporation Address: P.O. Box 753
Littleton, CO 80160-0753Phone: 303-798-9567 Fax: 303-470-1011 E-mail: darlene@milehigh.net