Reporting abuse to Hotmail

[Leif]

I received the following email this morning:

From: Corrine Holden [mailto:cholden@*****.edu]
Sent: 15 July 2010 10:48
To: gg@*****.co.uk
Subject: [***SPAM*** Score/Req: 14.8/8.5]

I am Golan Bradley a staff of Natwest Bank ,I am pleased to pass across to you a very urgent and profitable business proposal which I believe will profit the both of us after completion.I will await to receive a positive response from you to enable me give more details Please send your confidential telephone and fax number in your reply to: golanbb@hotmail.com Golan Bradley(Mr.)

I wasn't taken in by it, but as it was unlikely I was the sole recipient, I reckoned that there was always the possibility that someone else might be.

I immediately forwarded it on (with details of the header) to abuse@hotmail.com, and got an acknowledgement by return. In under four hours, I had received the following from Microsoft Customer Support:

Hello Leif,

Thank you for writing to Windows Live Hotmail Customer Service. This is Rommel and I am writing in response to your concern that the golanbb@hotmail.com account is being used for abuse. I understand how frustrating this could have been.

I have closed the golanbb@hotmail.com account you reported in accordance with the Hotmail Terms of Use (TOU). It is a strict violation of the TOU for our members to send objectionable material of any kind or nature using our service.

We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with the highest quality service available. Thank you for contacting Windows Live Hotmail.

Sincerely,

Rommel C.
Windows Live Hotmail Customer Service

Not bad service for such a big company, and goes to show that spending a few seconds forwarding-on obvious abuse can have a positive effect.

[HansV]

That's more than I would have expected!

[StuartR]

I forwarded something similar to Egg last year, and got a really fatuous reply advising me to make sure I have anti-virus software on my PC

[ChrisGreaves]

... spending a few seconds forwarding-on obvious abuse can have a positive effect.

Good for you, Leif, but I'm a cynic if ever there was one.
I bet that withing five minutes of diddle-head's discovery that her/his/its golanbb@hotmail.com account is closed she/he/it (I could abbreviate that rather neatly!) will have a NEW gmail account, paste it into the macro/job and be up and running again.
I further bet that the new email address will have the characters "leif" in there somewhere too.

Anything short of the correct combination of firearms, walls, and you know the rest is going to fail as a deterrent, IMHO.

[Leif]

Good for you, Leif, but I'm a cynic if ever there was one.

I know it is just a pebble in a very large ocean. But what's that saying - "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil...?"

[ChrisGreaves]

I know it is just a pebble in a very large ocean.

So it's YOU who are responsible for rise in sea levels, not the Global warming Hoax ... (grin!)

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil...
Thanks, and so true.

[Leif]

No, I took the pebble out of the sea in the first place