Verizon Mail - Part 2 -

. He forwarded us a prepared statement (republished below).

According to Vincenzo, spam complaints come from spammers 
themselves. This sits at odds with our own correspondence from 
Verizon subscribers.

Alan Gottlieb's email is typical in expressing frustration over 
Verizon's own subscribers (or former subscribers) over the email 
blockade.

    I read this article and it is unbelievable. I called Verizon to 
confirm this and they did. In consolation, they said I could build a 
list of domains to be permitted access. I have dozens of 
international contacts and am not about to go through this chore 
and I expect the reaction of many of their users will be the same... 
bail out!! As soon as I confirmed this, I called COMCAST. They will 
be installing tomorrow.

    I wonder how many people are going to get fired over this 
decision.

Expat lawyer Alberto Costa reports similar problems

    I am a British lawyer resident in Boston. I have been affected by 
this nonsense Verizon policy. Even British government email 
accounts were blocked and my contacts there were unable to 
correspond with me. The Verizon netmail complaints department 
agreed with me and urged me to report the matter to the media.

    I wrote to the Verizon CEO, Ivan Seidenburg, all members of the 
Board of Directors and some Executive VP's. To date, I have not 
received a response from any.

    I will be closing my telephone, DSL and verizon netmail 
account at expense to me (changing business cards etc.) and 
moving to another provider.

    I am astounded at Verizon's arrogance and blatant breach of its 
own well published purported "codes of business conduct" which 
stipulate, inter alia, their respect and integrity towards their 
clients. At no stage was I informed of this email block and thus 
was not given the chance to communicate with members of the 
British government etc, by other means.

    Thank you for your article and bringing this silly policy to the 
attention of other readers, whom I hope will also terminate their 
contracts with Verizon.

Ed Lowitz has a practical suggestion

    I've lost e-mail as a result of this. To overcome it and possible 
future problems of its ilk, I've taken to enclosing my Yahoo e-mail 
address in my signature.

®

    STATEMENT FROM VERIZON ONLINE REGARDING SPAM 
FILTERING January 12, 2005

    Spam is out of control. Leading providers of spam protection 
tools such as MX Logic, Inc. and MessageLabs report that some 
80 to 90 percent of all e-mail today is spam.

    This is a major problem for Internet users in multiple ways. 
Spam clogs our mailboxes daily to the point where it threatens 
viability of e-mail as a communications tool. It also routinely 
carries viruses, identity-theft scams, spyware, zombie bots and 
other serious security threats.

    As an ISP, Verizon Online is working hard to address these 
serious security threats on the Internet by closely monitoring our 
network for incoming and outgoing spam and by working 
cooperatively with others across the ISP industry on anti-spam 
initiatives.

    These round-the-clock efforts include blocking spam and 
propagation of viruses from sources we identify using methods 
that are consistent with industry practices. This is a long-standing 
policy at Verizon Online.

    When we identify sources of spam or viruses, we block them as 
narrowly as we can and, where possible, we work directly with 
whoever manages that source to notify them of the issue. We then 
continuously monitor the source and will lift the block as soon as 
we are satisfied the threat has been resolved. In many cases, this 
is resolved within two days; however, we will not remove a block 
as long as a serious threat remains.

    The entire ISP industry is working to combat spam and other 
online security threats. Verizon Online is a member of various 
coalitions, including the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group 
that includes both large and small ISPs covering more than 100 
million online subscribers. We also have aggressively pursued 
spammers through legal action, and taken a leading role in 
drafting legislation at the state and national level and working with 
domestic and international law enforcement agencies to combat 
spam other threats. In short, Verizon is committed to protecting its 
customers and its network from the serious security matters that 
threaten our use of the Internet everyday.

    Any spam blocking method will, inevitably, also result in the 
blocking or delay of otherwise legitimate email. This is yet another 
reason why spammers are harmful to the Internet community. If a 
Verizon Online customer believes they are not receiving legitimate 
e-mail, they should call our technical support desk for assistance 
and we will work with them to resolve their situation as quickly as 
possible. Our Verizon Online web site also features an Internet 
security page with practical tips and tools that can help customers 
protect themselves from Internet threats. It can be found at 
http://broadbandbeat.verizon.net/safety_security.

    We believe that fighting spam is the right thing to do for the 
safety and security of our more than 4 million broadband and dial-
up customers.

    Some of the loudest complaints you will see or hear about spam 
blocking come from the spammers themselves, who lose 
significant income when their efforts to flood the Internet with 
unsolicited e-mail are foiled. Our customers expect and demand 
that we provide them with as safe, secure and effective an Internet 
experience as possible and we are firm in our commitment to do 
that.

Related stories

Verizon persists with European email blockade
German court rules email blocking 'illegal'
Verizon and Yahoo! forge broadband alliance
Readers storm Verizon email blockade





             Brien.
         NEW YORK
   eagle registry #501
eagle kammback registry


-- 
Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.7.1 - Release Date: 1/19/2005