I sent out a few hundred emails to webmasters requesting a link exchange. I used emailing software that I never used before, I accidentally sent some emails to spamreport@whateverdomains .
I got a lot of emails from webmasters all thanking me and linking to me but now all of my sites have been taken off line by spamcop.

I didn't think that I was spamming! honest!

Any one know how I can get my sites back up to the same domain?

Would I have to get my own server and host my sites my self? Is that possible?

Please help,

Gavin

Hi gavster,

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do besides e-mail Spamcop.

I contacted spamcop, I dont no how sypathetic they are. So Im trying to look ahead...
If I get my own server could I not host the domain?

Well it depends what host you are at. I guess your host just took you offline withought contacting you? Yes, you will be able to get your sites backup, but contact your hosting company, and spamcop about the issue first. SpamCop are really bad, I keep seeing these types of posts at forums, how dare spamcop declare themeselves the police of spam? All I have seen is them hurting innocent people, they wont be able to get the "real" spammers anyway because they have tons of there owner servers, etc.

Exactly right IBanners.

If I was a spammer I would make sure that my tracks were covered, and I wouldn't be just asking for a innocent link exchange. Yes my hosting companies (hostingmatters.com & perfecthost.net) did take me offline without informing me, and I'm still waiting for spamcops reply. You said "you will be able to get your sites backup" how would you recommend I could do this? I recently found out about a hosting companies called bullet proof hosting... A hosting company who charge $250 a month min. because they specialize in spam sites - But No Thanks.. spam is far from my intention.

Most decent hosts do have a ZERO SPAM tolerance. The reason you have been taken off so soon is because you might have been hosted on the server IP address which gets blacklisted.

This can stop other clients from sending out emails, which finally affects all the people on a specific server.

So rather than host a spammer, a host will almost always terminate a account to save the other clients from harm.

So be careful the next time around and if your emails are not SPAM, then there is no probable reason for anyone to terminate your account.

Warm Regards,

Hello gavster,
Well I am going to say it even though some will not like it. According to the law no matter what happened your host has to follow rules also.

1. They can't remove a website tha has been paid for, in other words if you paid your hosting and they ripped your site down they are liable for a law suit.

2. They must inform you according to the law, it does not matter what their terms say, they have to follow he law also.

I offer hosting if you are interested let me know.

HarleyBabes

Every webhost has an "Acceptable Usage Policy" and/or "Terms of Service". Almost at all hosts, spamming would be unacceptable and would lead to a termination. This would have been stated in those documents. Signing up with an host is acceptance of the AUP and TOS, so there is no way a law suit would hold against a host for termination against spam.

HOWEVER, a host has the ability to consult the Datacenter and side with the customer if the host feels that the client was wrongly implicated etc etc..

Warm Regards,

Rubbish HarleyBabes. When abuse occurs an isp, host or any other type of service provider has every right to protect their business and private property and to suspend or remove the user. It is just proper ethics to inform the customer as soon as possible.

The host's terms of service or AUP is also the advanced warning and notification so they are informed. Getting clients to read them is another story.

Well.....

I got all my sites back online within the last few days. It turns out that spamcop isnt all mighty. They can only report sites for up to 48 hrs after the last complaint.

Thanks for the help.

SPAMcop ain't almighty .. looks like you haven't come across SPEWS

Glad that you are up with your websites and hoping you have a trouble free hosting experience

Cheers,

Hello-

I would like to clear a few things up, if I may. We do not like to close anyone's website down, especially a long-time customer like Gavin. He has been a great client.

I sent an email to Gavin at 12:51 am cst that his sites had been reported and we had been furnished with evidence. The sites were not immediately terminated, but were, instead, suspended in order for him to download anything he needed. The sites were left suspended for approximately 10 hours, then they were removed from the server.

A couple of hours later we were contacted by Gavin, wanting to know what had happened to his websites. I forwarded the earlier message to him. He was shocked, as he had not received the prior message.

He then sent an email, explaining what he had done. Even though he did not recognize what he had done as spam, it was still spam.

On July 5th, I restored his accounts (in suspended state) and replied with the following:

I have restored your accounts for the purpose of allowing you to download backups of your websites. If you enter your control panel and download a backup, you will be able to restore to any Cpanel based webhost. We are not able to host these accounts, as we can not risk losing the server. We can leave this open to you for only a few hours. Please, let us know when you are finished.

We never heard back from him. I still left the accounts up until July 9th, when I terminated them. In my opinion, we went beyond what was expected of us.

Now, let me explain our stance. We will not tolerate spam. Period. We have had to terminate resellers that have been with us for a period of years, because they slipped and gave in to spam. We take a very tough stance toward spam.

Having said that, I do believe Gavin, when he says that he did not think what he had done was spam. I do not believe he will do it again. I would love to give him a second chance. However, we have to answer to our suppliers. If we are listed and keep Gavin's account, the server is pulled by the datacenter. Our server IP was listed in SpamCop, along with Gavin's email. All over the world, system administrators will block email sent from our server, if it remains.

The next step from SpamCop is the blackhole called SPEWS. SPEWS is hosted in another country and can only be contacted (but not directly) through an admin news group. There you will see many system admins apologizing and begging to be removed from the list, as SPEWS is very widely used for spam filtering. SPEWS may, or may not, remove the listing.

We were put in a bad situation by Gavin's email being listed. Tough decisions (really, there were no choices) had to be made. We had to remove the websites. I do deeply regret that it came about, but we had no choice. I wish Gavin all the best.

Lamar Stanfield
Perfecthost.net

I never received the last few emails because my email account had been removed - but thank you. I understand and respect the decision of both percthost and hostingmatters made right from the moment I realized what I had done.
I would recommend percthost and hostingmatters to anyone they are both excellent.
The only reason I started this thread was to figure out how I could get my sites back online.

Gav