Blocking All Asian Email To Prevent Spam

from the seems-a-bit-extreme dept

More and more ISPs are now blocking all email from Asia in an attempt to prevent spam. It seems that many spammers (most of whom are not in Asia) use open relays in Asia to send their spam. Since attempts to work with the Asian ISPs haven't worked out so well, some have decided to just block all email from that part of the world. Obviously, that can be a bit of a problem when no legitimate mail can go through. On the Asian ISP side, they say that they're using older software that only has documentation in English - so they're not even sure how to solve the problem. Plus, many (apparently) don't see what the problem with spam is. They quote someone saying that it's a "sign of respect" if someone sends you spam. I know there are plenty of folks from that side of the world reading Techdirt, and I'd be interested to know if this is a common perception, or if they just found the one wacko who likes spam and quoted him.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Amanda B. Reckondwith, 19 Feb 2002 @ 11:33am

    They will just change continents

    I am starting to receive more and more spam from Central and South America. However, the junk from Asia and Eastern Europe hasn't declined and sometimes is a duplicate of the Latin American routed stuff. If these clowns would put as much energy into a "respectable" business as they do hiding their tracks, they might make money and not piss off the rest of the world in the process.

    Yes, I would endorse my ISP filtering out all spam that is not USA in origin and/or passes through off-shore servers. Anyone who need contact out of the USA could use a different server.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Duffman, 19 Feb 2002 @ 5:01pm

      Re: They will just change continents

      Yeah, but what happens when everyone's ISP decides to start blocking non-US or non-North America messages? And why should I be forced to find an ISP who has chosen not to do this in order to communicate with my friend in Romania, just because you don't like getting spam?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Cheeses H. Kryst, 19 Feb 2002 @ 5:55pm

        This is a non problem

        >Yeah, but what happens when everyone's ISP decides to start blocking non-US or non-North America messages? And why should I be forced to find an ISP who has chosen not to do this in order to communicate with my friend in Romania, just because you don't like getting spam.< br>
        Not EVERY service is going to block non-US (Canada is often a source of spam as well). There will be plenty of ISPs that will cater to expats and people who need to communincate with the 3rd and 2nd World.

        Hell, an ISP could easily have two servers. one for those who don't want be inundated with spam and one for those who want to make money fast, get Viagra cheap, or copy any DVD. Don't bring the cost of additional servers into the subject, ISPs are spending a lot of money dealing with spam now.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Andrea, 19 Feb 2002 @ 6:49pm

    'Tis true

    Asian companies definitely have less problems with spam. I used to work at a company that threatened to fire me if I didn't spam their target market (I resigned). It takes many, many complaints to Asian ISPs before they do anything to combat people sending spam from their servers.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.