I’ve worked on a service that sends out lots of email. We were very careful to 1) only add people to our system who have requested it (which involves sending out confirmation emails), and 2) not send mail to someone who never wants to hear from us again.
Now anyone who does this sort of work will have immediately spotted that if we send an email in step 1 in order to verify the address, it is possible for someone to have us send emails to arbitrary addresses.
This is where #2 comes it; every email we send out includes a link that will put you on our “Do Not Call” list–get on that list and you’ll never be able to sign up for the service, because we won’t ever send you an email again even if you (or someone else trying to annoy you) asks.
Nonetheless, I’ve had to deal with several SpamCop complaints. Each time it’s the same thing–a forwarded message with wild invective, etc., and, inevitably, SpamCop *never tells us the address the message was sent to!*
Yep, that’s right, it’s a great game of Hide The Ball–“If you’re not a spammer, remove this person’s address. No, we’re not going to give it to you, just do it.”
Usually there’s something in the headers that gives it away–which arguably just proves how stupid a game it is for SpamCop to play–but it’s a waste of time.
That said, it’s unfortunate that it’s Scott Richter “who is suing them”:http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3348241, since he’s a fucking spamboy wanker.
