Despite continuous advances in digital defense, spam still exists. It is a nuisance for users and website owners. Nobody likes seeing shady messages in their inbox, but spam also causes site performance and rankings to deteriorate. Do not let cybercriminals go unpunished! One of the ways to counteract and prevent their attacks is to report their IPs.
Digital defense firms compile lists of fishy senders and let anyone contribute to them. The ever-growing IP blacklist by CleanTalk is a perfect example. It allows you to add or check IPs, emails, domains and subnets. As of today, almost 6 million IPS and 15.5 million email addresses have been reported.
Benefits for Companies and Users
Spammers are increasingly creative, but Internet Service Providers are reinforcing their barriers all the time. With every new entry on the blacklist, the efficiency of defense grows across the web. For companies that use digital marketing (almost all businesses today), IP checks are crucial. They ensure that mass mailing campaigns reach the target audience and do not backfire.
How Blacklists Work
Email campaigns are closely monitored by Mail Abuse Prevention Systems and other entities. Suspicious IPs, emails, and domains are added to special databases. These are constantly updated and used to fight spam.
Here is what happens when you send an email. First, the system logs the IP address. The servers on the recipient’s side verify the sender. They establish a connection to the blacklist to verify your status (i.e., check if you have been involved in suspicious activity before). In case of a match, your message is redirected to the junk folder.
Note that the content of the email has no bearing on the result. If it comes from a domain or IP associated with violations, it is rejected automatically, so the user will not even see it in their junk. So, how are those blacklists formed?
Logic of Blacklisting
Your IP may be added to a blacklist for two reasons. First, this may happen automatically if you employ spamming software or open the relay servers. At the same time, complaints from users (over 0.01%) are another trigger. They are submitted for different subjective reasons, for example:
- the recipients do not remember signing up for the emails;
- the unsubscribe link is difficult to find;
- their inbox is flooded;
- they do not like your content for any reason;
Some inactive and fake addresses act as spam traps. This is a tool used by ISPs to identify spammers. Hitting these traps repeatedly results in blacklisting.
How to Report and Check IPs
Go to a website collecting complaints. Enter the address or IP you want to report and pick the type of attack. Leave basic contact details for feedback and include comments if you want. Using the same service, you can check any sender and website, including your own.
