Unsolicited Bulk Email

UCC considers the sending of unsolicited bulk email, sometimes referred to as Spam, to be in breach of its Acceptable Use Policy. We are committed to ensuring that everything possible is done to prevent spamming and in particular that our systems are not used as relays for such activity.

There have been a number of spamming incidents recently where the UCC domain name (@ucc.ie) was forged on bulk emails to give the impression that the emails were sent from UCC. These email messages did not originate in UCC. In each case to date we have found that the emails originated in networks within the US. From a technical standpoint, with current technology there isn't anything that we can do to prevent people on other networks forging our domain name on e-mail addresses. We have complained to the networks in question, but to no avail. Since these incidents have caused major collateral problems for our services here in UCC, we are currently taking legal advice on the matter.

We receive a large number of complaints from people who have been victims of spam purporting to come from UCC. In the past, we have tried to reply individually to each of these. This, however, is no longer possible because of the volume of such messages — sometimes we can receive over a thousand a day. In any case, if there is to be an effective campaign to control spam, these complaints should be sent to those responsible, i.e. the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in whose networks the spams originate.

To determine where the spam actually originated, you need to look at the headers for the message which give details of the route taken by the message from the time it was sent until it was delivered. A useful link which explains how to interpret the headers and find the real source of spam is Rahul.net's spam tracking page.

Once you have examined the header and determined the source of the spam, it would be very helpful if you would forward a complaint to the Service Provider responsible and in this way discourage further spamming. If, having verified the source of the email, you wish to proceed with a complaint to UCC, please forward the message (with full headers) to: email-abuse@ucc.ie.