Blacklists are lists of either IP addresses or domain names that have
been accused of sending unsolicited commercial email. They are
subscribed to by many Internet Service Providers (ISPs). If a website or
IP address is added to a blacklist and the ISP that site is attempting
to send email to subscribes to the blacklist, the email will likely not
get through to the intended recipient.
While blacklists have been helpful in filtering out and reducing
spam, many innocent sites are added blacklists. Often, business owners
who send out opt-in, or permission-based, newsletters are reported by
one of their subscribers who simply forgot that they ever subscribed.
Most blacklists are automated and blacklist first and ask questions
later.
Here is an excerpt from a whitepaper on blacklists that explains the
problem of blacklists that permission-based businesses face:
Blacklists operate on a reporting system, in which an individual
can forward an email they consider to be spam to the list operator,
who then adds that person or entity to the list of known senders of
unsolicited commercial email. Unfortunately, the operators of these
blacklists are not answerable to anyone and they run their
operations with extreme prejudice against anyone who is attempting
to earn revenue from electronic commerce. They require no proof that
the offending email was actually unsolicited, they do not notify the
business in question that they have been blacklisted, nor do they
offer that person or entity an opportunity to defend themselves
before they are placed on such a list. This is a situation that begs
to be abused. There have been numerous instances in which online
businesses have found themselves on such a blacklist for reasons
that range from the user who subscribes to a newsletter and then
forgets that they did, to a competitor attempting to thin the field,
to the malicious promptings of a personal grudge. - Making Room
for the Business Use of Email p. 5
In order to check to see if your website is on a blacklist, simply go
to www.openrbl.org and type in your domain name. The site will do a
quick check against its database of 31 major blacklists and within
seconds tell you which, if any, that your website(s) are on. Another
good tool that will allow you to check to see if you are on blacklists
can be found at www.senderbase.org.
Getting off a Blacklist
If you get on a blacklist, it is often difficult to get off. You can
try to visit the web site of the blacklist you are on and look for
removal procedures. Some blacklists have procedures for removal, while
other lists are permanent.
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