"Our engineers are taking urgent actions to block spammers
abusing our email service," said a Tiscali statement on Wednesday.
"New hardware is being installed and spam filters are being
updated. It is likely to take 7–10 days for these changes to take
effect across receiving email providers. During this period,
customers will still find some sent emails delayed."
Tiscali has 1.8 million customers in the UK and it has not said
how many of them are affected. It did say, though, that not all
Tiscali emails are being blocked.
Many anti-spam systems operate by 'blacklisting' mail operators.
Domains or mail systems which are delivering massive amounts of
spam are identified and all mail from them is blocked by ISPs or
mail companies before recipients see the messages.
If a system is hijacked by spammers, as Tiscali's appears to
have been, then other systems block Tiscali mail, which affects all
senders of email and not just spammers.
On Thursday the company said that it had put in place new email
systems and that the sending of emails to non-Tiscali addresses had
improved. "We have had reports of intermittent delays with emails
sent from Tiscali to other Tiscali email addresses. We are
investigating this," said the company.
Meanwhile in the US a man dubbed the 'spam king' has been
arrested. Robert Soloway was arrested in Seattle, where prosecutors
claim that he is one of the world's most prolific spammers.
Soloway is accused of infecting other computers with a virus
which turns them into 'zombies'. Those machines are then used by
Soloway's system to send out email on his behalf in massive
numbers, according to the allegations.
Soloway has been arrested under identity theft laws and has been
charged with mail fraud, money laundering and identity theft.
Prosecutors say that Soloway was responsible for the sending of
tens of millions of spam email messages between 2003 and 2007.
Soloway could face claims and fines of up to £415,000 if convicted
of all the charges against him.
