My Account Was Canned.

[blobpet]

Earlier today my account at
http://www.topcities.com
was terminated because of spam.[nbsp][nbsp]You see, my site offers free homepages like GeoCities.[nbsp][nbsp]Here's what happened:

1) A spammer signed up for a free homepage.
2) He created a page about some "Get Rich Quick" scam or porno page (note: I never saw it so I don't know).
3) Then he junkmailed tons of people to come to this page hosted on my website.
4) Angry recipients notified FutureQuest about the spam and the resulting link.
5) FutureQuest terminated my account and put up a page on my website for all to see that titled "SPAMMER".[nbsp][nbsp]Here's the link: http://www.topcities.com

I've e-mailed everyone at FutureQuest, but haven't gotten a response.[nbsp][nbsp]All surfers to my site are now seeing the "SPAMMER" page, which makes them think I'm a spammer.[nbsp][nbsp]

Please, FutureQuest, there's just no way for me to have a "Free Homepages" website without the risk of getting one or two abusers.[nbsp][nbsp]It's much like your company's hosting services.[nbsp][nbsp]I'm sure once in a while you will get a crook or two.[nbsp][nbsp]And as I'm even more sure of, your upstream provider will always let you rectify the situation first.[nbsp][nbsp]If you are ignorant or fail to take action, then they would come in and shut you down.[nbsp][nbsp]I never got that chance.[nbsp][nbsp]I was shut down immediately without ever receiving any notices to correct the situation.[nbsp][nbsp]I would have immediately killed the spammer's web pages and forwarded his e-mail to all who complained.

Please, Deb, Justin, or anyone else at FutureQuest...[nbsp][nbsp]Re-activate my account and allow me a couple of days to move my account elsewhere.[nbsp][nbsp]That "SPAMMER" page is really ruining my reputation.

As for the over-usage fees, I immediately sent them out asap when Deb called me to tell me about it 3 days ago.[nbsp][nbsp]That payment includes my July bills, July over-usage, and August usage + anticipate over-usage.[nbsp][nbsp]Are you planning on keeping all my August fees even though today is barely August 2?[nbsp][nbsp]All this because I was a victim of a crooked spammer?




[This message has been edited by blobpet (edited 08-02-99)]

[Justin]

Blobpet,

Your site was using far more disk space than was allowed, and today's spam report was the second one since you signed up. We are very strict on spam, and do not usually give a first warning. We informed you at that time that if it were to happen again your account would be terminated.

Once we receive your payment, we will refund what you have not already used, and we will allow you access to retreive your files at that time.

We have changed the "Spammer" page to a simple 404 page given the circumstances.

We appologize for having to terminate your account, but you must realize that UUNet (our upstream provider) is as strict or stricter than we are in that regard, and we must protect ourselves as well. We have a zero tolerance policy on Spam.

A site of your site's nature really belongs on a dedicated server to perform well... and I wish you good luck in your search for a new home for your site.

------------------
Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support
[This message has been edited by Justin (edited 08-03-99)]

[Deb]

Hello Blobpet,

Due to the fact that I am receiving a number of emails in my box, concerning your domain, I've decided to go ahead and post a second reply to you here in an effort to clarify a couple of things.

It seems you feel you are being charged for August.[nbsp][nbsp]This is untrue.[nbsp][nbsp]The only amount being requested is the past due amounts for your domain.[nbsp][nbsp]As you know via our phone conversation, your accounts billing was seriously overdue.[nbsp][nbsp]You also were informed that your account was utilizing three times the amount of disk space offered by our largest package.[nbsp][nbsp]These two items needed to be rectified for us to continue service and your account was to be deactivated within the next 48 hours anyway.

Http://www.FutureQuest.net/tos.php clearly states the actions that will be taken against spam.[nbsp][nbsp]I do understand that the type of site you operate is the type that gives away just about everything to your users.[nbsp][nbsp]As such your users could very well be the violators of the TOS and not you personally.[nbsp][nbsp]But, the Terms of Service also clearly speak about this issue in the Public Distribution section and I ...If they do not follow our terms of service they could put your account in jeopardy." which is why we discourage it.

Our Terms are pretty mild in comparison to many... and we do plan to hold to them.[nbsp][nbsp]If you have sent in a payment, and it does in fact arrive sometime in the future, you will be refunded accordingly.

I wish you the best of luck with your new provider.

Deb
[This message has been edited by Deb (edited 08-03-99)]