Atriks is an online database firm that offers demographics and other data to be used for mass mailings. Insight's Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy explicitly prohibit the use of third parties for the purpose of conducting mass e-mailings.

VirtualMDA

VirtualMDA is a company that offers to pay you for the use of your home computer in a computing operation to distribute mass e-mailings. Since this software sets up an e-mail server on your PC and sends e-mail out directly to the Internet, it is in violation of the Insight's Acceptable Use Policy and Terms of Use which prohibit the operation of a server on the Insight network.

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Terms of Use Policy
Acceptable Use Policy

It is very common for a spammer to send out a large volume of e-mail utilizing an e-mail address from their distribution list as the reply to/from address. This is done in an attempt to defer complaints about the unsolicited e-mail from the spammer to another person. It will also cause any "bounces" to go to the reply to/from address. Often times this is actually used as a type of Denial of Service (DoS) attack against a particular network or individual.

Recently, this type of activity involving the use of Insight customer e-mail addresses has increased. Unfortunately in most of these cases, the original e-mail that was sent did not originate from the Insight network, and there is nothing we can do to prevent this from occurring. In order for any action to be taken against the individual(s) conducting this type of activity, reports must be sent to the network from which the original e-mail was sent.

If, after examining the full expanded headers of the original message, it is determined that the e-mail truly originated from the Insight network, a report can be e-mailed to abuse@InsightBB.com.