Weblog entry #295 for simonw
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#295
emailreg.org scam?
Posted by simonw on Mon 22 Dec 2008 at 11:36
Opinion from those that might know is that Barracuda own and operate emailreg.org, although there is no mention of this on the emailreg.org site, and the whois data is obscured.
Indeed the owners of emailreg.org have gone to a lot of trouble to hide who they are, which would be illegal for a UK operated website of this type.
Was looking for a way to say our email server forwards a lot of email, Barracuda forward you to emailreg.org who want an "administrative fee".
So it looks like Barracuda add you to their block list, and then refer you to something that is disguised as a third party whitelisting service.
Looks suspiciously like "racketeering" to me.
I wonder why they opened their block list to others.
Barracuda continuing their tradition as the anti-spam company you least want to deal with.
Indeed the owners of emailreg.org have gone to a lot of trouble to hide who they are, which would be illegal for a UK operated website of this type.
Was looking for a way to say our email server forwards a lot of email, Barracuda forward you to emailreg.org who want an "administrative fee".
So it looks like Barracuda add you to their block list, and then refer you to something that is disguised as a third party whitelisting service.
Looks suspiciously like "racketeering" to me.
I wonder why they opened their block list to others.
Barracuda continuing their tradition as the anti-spam company you least want to deal with.
Comments on this Entry
This was an interesting read. The web site does look pretty legitimate, but come on, $20 for "administrative fees"?
Definitely a racketeering operation imo. I agree with your analysis.
I doubt it'll really be around that long. If people are using this list to block your emails, let them. They're not people you need to be dealing with anyway.
Definitely a racketeering operation imo. I agree with your analysis.
I doubt it'll really be around that long. If people are using this list to block your emails, let them. They're not people you need to be dealing with anyway.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (92.233.xx.xx) on Mon 5 Jan 2009 at 19:04
Have just had my email blocked by this bunch and read a load of blurb about why they are different including stuff about not having a 'business model' tied to the unblocking / registering of domains. Once logged in they ask for $20 per domain - big time scam and a waste of my time. The worrying thing is that they are actually blocking email so they have to be stopped somehow!
Don't know if this forum accepts email addresses so will hold off for now rather than upset anyone - but happy to participate in anything that stops them!
Don't know if this forum accepts email addresses so will hold off for now rather than upset anyone - but happy to participate in anything that stops them!
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (76.29.xx.xx) on Thu 23 Apr 2009 at 04:35
I don't think this will last long either. We have a barracuda appliance, and you can't use custom blocks for sites whitelisted on emailreg.org - even when their users get compromised and send out phishing emails - the phishes are whitelisted too.
Who wants a spam filter that whitelists spam? I expect either Barracuda will tone down the whitelisting very soon or their market share will evaporate.
Who wants a spam filter that whitelists spam? I expect either Barracuda will tone down the whitelisting very soon or their market share will evaporate.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (80.176.xx.xx) on Tue 6 Jan 2009 at 18:04
I agree this is an outrageous scam. I have ben using spamcop and RBL for years and am pretty knowledgeable about mail and now find my business seriously impacted
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (216.70.xx.xx) on Wed 7 Jan 2009 at 16:37
Yep, got this scam today too. Seems BarracudaCentral.org is running a racketeering scam. Telling you your email server has been blocked, and if you want it to be on a whitelist you need to choke up $20. For business purposes $20 is nothing, but still it's a scam...and if I pay $20 to Barracuda now, who is to say that other popular domains will not follow? $20 for Barracuda, $20 for Gmail, $20 for Yahoo, $20 for .... never ending SCAM!
How do we stop this!!!!!!????
How do we stop this!!!!!!????
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Steve (80.68.xx.xx) on Wed 7 Jan 2009 at 16:45
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I guess if you're in charge of a mailserver you make sure you never use Barracuda's blacklists, or their products.
Short of that there's nothing much you can do but complain and hope for the best.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (216.70.xx.xx) on Thu 8 Jan 2009 at 22:54
Well, I folded...I choked up $20, and it worked. Now my email goes through ok. I also had to add a CNAME pointer in my DNS to "Verify" the email server was mine. I was getting hammered from all directions from users getting bounced messages. I hated throwing $20 at the scam, but I had no choice. Now to run through my system thoroughly and check for possible errors.
All I can say is Barracuda is running a big time scam...makes you wonder where this will stop. Maybe this is the new wave of making $$$ on the net.
BTW, it wasn't just me that was having problems. I called other IT people who reported they were having recent blacklist problems.
Arrrrrggggg (grinding teeth noises)
All I can say is Barracuda is running a big time scam...makes you wonder where this will stop. Maybe this is the new wave of making $$$ on the net.
BTW, it wasn't just me that was having problems. I called other IT people who reported they were having recent blacklist problems.
Arrrrrggggg (grinding teeth noises)
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (65.209.xx.xx) on Fri 9 Jan 2009 at 20:14
Unbelieveable. I checked our domain out with mxtoolbox.com and we're clean eveywhere. The only blocking site is Barracuda and yes, they want us to cough up $20. While not a large dollar amount, the principal alone bothers me. Just wanted to share my pain with this as well. It's very disruptive and makes our business (and my IT department) look bad.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
I have nothing against paid removal.
My experience of Barracuda listings is that they are usually correct.
It is the pretending it isn't them being paid, that I think is the ethical issue here.
Also people who use their list need to understand their policy, and clearly charging for removal is a key aspect, since it excludes poor people who make a mistake or get misclassified.
My experience of Barracuda listings is that they are usually correct.
It is the pretending it isn't them being paid, that I think is the ethical issue here.
Also people who use their list need to understand their policy, and clearly charging for removal is a key aspect, since it excludes poor people who make a mistake or get misclassified.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (85.52.xx.xx) on Tue 20 Jan 2009 at 17:28
SCAMMM!!!
I'm sure emailreg.org is a Barracuda "company", OK, they have Privacy protect on the domain, but no one can hide the IP: http://ws.arin.net/whois
Insert the IP of the web or the IP from where emailreg.org send you the e-mail of registration: IP 64.235.146.64
OrgName: Barracuda Networks, Inc.
OrgID: BARRA-7
Address: 3175 S. Winchester Blvd
City: Campbell
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 95008
Country: US
NetRange: 64.235.144.0 - 64.235.159.255
CIDR: 64.235.144.0/20
OriginAS: AS15324
NetName: BARRAUCDA
NetHandle: NET-64-235-144-0-1
Parent: NET-64-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: NS1.BARRACUDA.COM
NameServer: NS2.BARRACUDA.COM
Comment:
RegDate: 2006-10-31
Updated: 2008-06-05
RAbuseHandle: BARRA1-ARIN
RAbuseName: Barracuda Hostmaster
RAbusePhone: +1-408-342-5400
RAbuseEmail: hostmaster@barracuda.com
RNOCHandle: BARRA1-ARIN
RNOCName: Barracuda Hostmaster
RNOCPhone: +1-408-342-5400
RNOCEmail: hostmaster@barracuda.com
RTechHandle: BARRA1-ARIN
RTechName: Barracuda Hostmaster
RTechPhone: +1-408-342-5400
RTechEmail: hostmaster@barracuda.com
OrgTechHandle: BARRA1-ARIN
OrgTechName: Barracuda Hostmaster
OrgTechPhone: +1-408-342-5400
OrgTechEmail: hostmaster@barracuda.com
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-01-19 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
I'm sure emailreg.org is a Barracuda "company", OK, they have Privacy protect on the domain, but no one can hide the IP: http://ws.arin.net/whois
Insert the IP of the web or the IP from where emailreg.org send you the e-mail of registration: IP 64.235.146.64
OrgName: Barracuda Networks, Inc.
OrgID: BARRA-7
Address: 3175 S. Winchester Blvd
City: Campbell
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 95008
Country: US
NetRange: 64.235.144.0 - 64.235.159.255
CIDR: 64.235.144.0/20
OriginAS: AS15324
NetName: BARRAUCDA
NetHandle: NET-64-235-144-0-1
Parent: NET-64-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: NS1.BARRACUDA.COM
NameServer: NS2.BARRACUDA.COM
Comment:
RegDate: 2006-10-31
Updated: 2008-06-05
RAbuseHandle: BARRA1-ARIN
RAbuseName: Barracuda Hostmaster
RAbusePhone: +1-408-342-5400
RAbuseEmail: hostmaster@barracuda.com
RNOCHandle: BARRA1-ARIN
RNOCName: Barracuda Hostmaster
RNOCPhone: +1-408-342-5400
RNOCEmail: hostmaster@barracuda.com
RTechHandle: BARRA1-ARIN
RTechName: Barracuda Hostmaster
RTechPhone: +1-408-342-5400
RTechEmail: hostmaster@barracuda.com
OrgTechHandle: BARRA1-ARIN
OrgTechName: Barracuda Hostmaster
OrgTechPhone: +1-408-342-5400
OrgTechEmail: hostmaster@barracuda.com
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-01-19 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (194.221.xx.xx) on Tue 24 Feb 2009 at 13:53
definitely a scam, I have 50+ domains on my mailserver which are now being blocked by barracuda (and nobody else) I am not stumping up $1000 a year to have them removed when they shouldn't even be there.
My mail server has never been and never will be a source of spam.
My mail server has never been and never will be a source of spam.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (88.159.xx.xx) on Sun 15 Mar 2009 at 18:55
I'm kind of shocked that a big anti-spam player like Baraccuda uses questionable practices like this. I mean, this does nothing a SPF record doesn't do. They even can do more and above all they're free! This is ridiculous.
I've run in to this twice now. They seem to be blacklisting our IP's at random, since we got *no* complaints about those servers from anywhere else.
I'm confused about this.. aren't anti-spam people supposed to be the good guys?
I've run in to this twice now. They seem to be blacklisting our IP's at random, since we got *no* complaints about those servers from anywhere else.
I'm confused about this.. aren't anti-spam people supposed to be the good guys?
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
> aren't anti-spam people supposed to be the good guys?
Rule 29 applies:
The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less.
Rule 29 applies:
The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Hello All,
I really, really, REALLY need some help! Please read this!
I too have experienced the joys of Barracuda blocking email. I am in agreement with the ant-racketeering sentiment. Forcing you to pay-to-play is a scam that must be resisted.
UNLIKE most of the others, I do actually think I have a problem. I am on a shared server and I think my hosting company is lax on the email server security.
Though I never send out unsolicited email, NEVER do large group emailings, etc, I frequently find myself blocked by legitimate folks. For a while my email replies were being blocked to people with addresses such as somebody@bellsouth.net or somebody@yahoo.com. Even if they had initiated the conversation. One was my dad!
So I jump through hoops to get the issue resolved... only to have it occur a month later.
MY QUESTION IS THIS:
Could hosting my email on one of those "secure email servers" (such as www.4securemail.com) resolve this issue?
These "specialized" email servers advertise that they will screen out spam, make my communications more secure, bla bla bla. I am not interested in those services... I am primarily interested in keeping my domains off of "black lists". I have trained my email client to automatically screen spam for me, plus I like to double check my spam folder.
And I'm wondering how much to pay? The service I mention above (www.4securemail.com) seems INSANELY expensive! It would cost me $240 a year to use them!
If anyone can offer some advice, it would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Mike
I really, really, REALLY need some help! Please read this!
I too have experienced the joys of Barracuda blocking email. I am in agreement with the ant-racketeering sentiment. Forcing you to pay-to-play is a scam that must be resisted.
UNLIKE most of the others, I do actually think I have a problem. I am on a shared server and I think my hosting company is lax on the email server security.
Though I never send out unsolicited email, NEVER do large group emailings, etc, I frequently find myself blocked by legitimate folks. For a while my email replies were being blocked to people with addresses such as somebody@bellsouth.net or somebody@yahoo.com. Even if they had initiated the conversation. One was my dad!
So I jump through hoops to get the issue resolved... only to have it occur a month later.
MY QUESTION IS THIS:
Could hosting my email on one of those "secure email servers" (such as www.4securemail.com) resolve this issue?
These "specialized" email servers advertise that they will screen out spam, make my communications more secure, bla bla bla. I am not interested in those services... I am primarily interested in keeping my domains off of "black lists". I have trained my email client to automatically screen spam for me, plus I like to double check my spam folder.
And I'm wondering how much to pay? The service I mention above (www.4securemail.com) seems INSANELY expensive! It would cost me $240 a year to use them!
If anyone can offer some advice, it would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Mike
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (84.45.xx.xx) on Fri 27 Mar 2009 at 13:16
There are email providers around who are reputable and not that expensive. Peter Gradwell's lot offered this (gradwell.net).
But for small volumes one can use Googlemail, or Yahoo!, who both provide automated SMTP submission over SSL, and are in the "too large to block" category. I don't know what the AOL free email offer is like.
Alternatively move to a virtual host rather than shared hosting, and then you'll have your own IP address and your own reputation to maintain, as well as more secure and flexible hosting.
But for small volumes one can use Googlemail, or Yahoo!, who both provide automated SMTP submission over SSL, and are in the "too large to block" category. I don't know what the AOL free email offer is like.
Alternatively move to a virtual host rather than shared hosting, and then you'll have your own IP address and your own reputation to maintain, as well as more secure and flexible hosting.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
I do have gmail, but, for branding/trust reasons, I need to send from my own domains (me@mycompany.com).
Gradwell.net... most excellent, thanks!
W/ regard to using virtual dedicated servers, I have looked into that. I almost went GoDaddy because of price, but did not because they would not allow root/ssh access. My sites are db intensive, my IT guys need access.
Gradwell.net... most excellent, thanks!
W/ regard to using virtual dedicated servers, I have looked into that. I almost went GoDaddy because of price, but did not because they would not allow root/ssh access. My sites are db intensive, my IT guys need access.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (82.210.xx.xx) on Tue 5 May 2009 at 17:44
This is scam. I registered there and was not able to verify my domain. I tried several configurations and still nothing. I e-mailed them three times and they never replied. What a waste of $20 and my time.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (75.149.xx.xx) on Wed 24 Jun 2009 at 20:35
I'm looking to drop my barracuda box and go with sendio. Does anyone have any comments about the sendio product?
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (98.248.xx.xx) on Sun 30 Aug 2009 at 08:03
i use barracudas products and they work quite well. of course, i have not run into problems such as these, but unless i was to, i am a fan.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (66.214.xx.xx) on Tue 24 Nov 2009 at 00:01
It just happened to us as well. We are clean as a whistle everywhere except for barracuda. We also watch our mail servers daily and never send over 300 outgoing emails. Even if they were all spam (none are!) I would still say it wouldn't constitute a blacklist membership. This has got to be against the law somehow. Seems like a digital mafia. Maybe some lawyer will take up the cause and get a class action going.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (212.2.xx.xx) on Wed 2 Dec 2009 at 15:30
We've been listed on barracudacentral.org and have been blocked by many customers we regularly deal with. I refuse to pay the $20, but this is hurting our day to day business! Maybe we should start an action group that contribute to employing a lawyer to go after them? Any takers?
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (70.57.xx.xx) on Thu 3 Dec 2009 at 01:47
Ditto for us. We are a small business that relies on email extensively. This is a waste of my time to go through the emailreg.org scam. Barracuda needs to find a better way to fix this and provide exceptions rather than scamming another small business out of our thin profits.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (67.108.xx.xx) on Mon 28 Dec 2009 at 16:43
yeah one of our customers is unable to receive email from us.. uaw.net - This is ridiculous.. Even if it is only $20 i am not paying it.. making the customer unsubscribe from this pos blacklist.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Where did these guys come from? I had several of my customer notifications blocked today by these fools. I've read below, but the question I have is how were they able to inject themselves into the system. Is this ISP's that are using their services or is it linked through their network appliances or both. This really appears to be a scam. It is affecting my legit business. How do we get rid of them ?
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
People bought Barracuda spam products. I don't think you can get rid of them as they aren't under your control, you can just suggest that the clients not use Barracuda products in future. Presumably their spam gateway can be configured to ignore the Barracude blacklist?
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
I've reported them to the FTC. Hopefully, they will take some action. I will be sending notifications to all my customers very soon.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (71.252.xx.xx) on Wed 17 Mar 2010 at 01:06
Definitely a racket and more to it than just a simple RBL. Barracuda is apparently using the PBL ranges (those addresses listed as belonging to the major ISPs such as Verizon, SWB, etc. see: http://www.spamhaus.org/pbl/index.lasso regarding PBLs) which causes small business owners who send mail from their home PCs but use their hosted domains (username@mysmallbusiness.com) to get bounced by mail servers that reference zen.spamhaus.org, pbl.spamhaus.org, b.barracuda.org or any organizations that use barracuda appliances. This is a totally innappropriate use of PBLs. For a hosting provider to get ‘de-listed’, the fee of $20 for listing with EmailReg.org is per domain per year! If you check the IP address of EmailReg.org (64.235.146.64) you’ll find that it is none other than Barracuda Networks themselves:
OrgName: Barracuda Networks, Inc.
OrgID: BARRA-7
Address: 3175 S. Winchester Blvd
City: Campbell
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 95008
Country: US
NetRange: 64.235.144.0 – 64.235.159.255
CIDR: 64.235.144.0/20
OriginAS: AS15324
NetName: BARRAUCDA
NetHandle: NET-64-235-144-0-1
Parent: NET-64-0-0-0-0
This is a total racket being put in place in order to extract annual fees from LEGITIMATE hosting providers. All I can say at this point is to pass the word that PBLs are NOT spam blocklists but rather ISP lists of user allocated IPs and PBLs (and default Barracuda appliance rules) should NEVER be used to control spam. Barracuda is trying to pull a fast one here with blocking legitimate senders then trying to charge a fee to let mail pass and it should not be tolerated.
OrgName: Barracuda Networks, Inc.
OrgID: BARRA-7
Address: 3175 S. Winchester Blvd
City: Campbell
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 95008
Country: US
NetRange: 64.235.144.0 – 64.235.159.255
CIDR: 64.235.144.0/20
OriginAS: AS15324
NetName: BARRAUCDA
NetHandle: NET-64-235-144-0-1
Parent: NET-64-0-0-0-0
This is a total racket being put in place in order to extract annual fees from LEGITIMATE hosting providers. All I can say at this point is to pass the word that PBLs are NOT spam blocklists but rather ISP lists of user allocated IPs and PBLs (and default Barracuda appliance rules) should NEVER be used to control spam. Barracuda is trying to pull a fast one here with blocking legitimate senders then trying to charge a fee to let mail pass and it should not be tolerated.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Posted by Anonymous (212.101.xx.xx) on Thu 29 Apr 2010 at 10:42
I was looking for Information about the organization behind emailreg.org and how they are affiliated with barracuda.
It seems like they did some effort to hide their identity, but I found some hint who could be behind that project:
C:\>host domingo.dsdata.dk
domingo.dsdata.dk is a nickname for emailreg.org
emailreg.org has address 64.235.146.64
It seems like they did some effort to hide their identity, but I found some hint who could be behind that project:
C:\>host domingo.dsdata.dk
domingo.dsdata.dk is a nickname for emailreg.org
emailreg.org has address 64.235.146.64
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]