Anybody have a contact at Amazon AWS?
I sent in a spam complaint, and got back the below response - while I give them kudos for actually, you know, responding, I'm pretty sure that we can all agree that "sending the same canned message to email addresses scraped off websites" is the very definition of spam, yet somehow the EC2 abuse team seems to consider it a perfectly acceptable explanation - I'd sure love to discuss this with someone with a clue at Amazon AWS
Wether the addresses were gleaned using specially trained hedgehogs or by people looking at the sites to target who they're going to SPAM, targeted UCE is still UCE.
Apparently AWS doesn't grok that.
From: amitchell@isipp.com
Subject: Anybody at Amazon AWS?
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2014 09:15:36 -0700
To: nanog@nanog.orgAnybody have a contact at Amazon AWS?
I sent in a spam complaint, and got back the below response - while I give them kudos for actually, you know, responding, I'm pretty sure that we can all agree that "sending the same canned message to email addresses scraped off websites" is the very definition of spam, yet somehow the EC2 abuse team seems to consider it a perfectly acceptable explanation - I'd sure love to discuss this with someone with a clue at Amazon AWS
Did you try their abuse telephone? +1 (206) 266-2187?
Once I needed I had proper services on that number.
Anyway I am not sure if your contact will make a difference. As I see the case, honestly, it's you complaining against their customer, and Amazon is profiting from that customer. If you and only you are complaining I don't believe you will be heard.
Anyway the customer assumed they sent UCE. But won't assume it was a SPAM. As I see the customer states that a e-mail was sent to an e-mail address you have published as contact e-mail address and therefore, they have contacted you. In a canned way, but if it was a personal e-mail offering you something you don't care about, would you fill an abuse report? Or just ignoring/declining the offer?
If I right you a polite message right from my MUA and don't mention your name, treating you pretty much like a generic person I don't know, and offering my services, my curricula, or trying to show you a product I have created myself and believe it might be off your interest, it's certainly UCE but will you complain to my provider stating I was spamming you?
Well if it's true tha the sender used gmail (you can check your e-mail headers), pasted your address on their MUA or webmail as a Bcc or something like that, and Gmail didn't block the outgoing message, and you (and maybe 2 or 3 other individuals) didn't like that, I don't think Amazon or Google will find it as abuse of services.
Certainly it's not a good practice. Not something nice to do, or to receive. But is that an abuse? I don't think so. Specially of a minimum good practice is in place, just like a an opt-out mechanism or similar.
Good luck with that phone call. You will find someone to talk to. But I'm not sure you will find someone to agree with you it's an abuse.