Which platforms are most commonly used for sending spam emails?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Quora explains that spammers often use a combination of techniques including compromised email accounts, open relays and bulletproof hosting, making attribution difficult. They also note that some legitimate ESPs may be exploited due to poor monitoring.
Email marketer from Reddit shares that spam is sent from botnets, compromised accounts, and some smaller email marketing platforms with weaker security. Spammers also use public Wi-Fi networks to mask their locations.
Email marketer from Reddit notes that spammers exploit open mail relays, compromised servers, and bulletproof hosting services to run their spam campaigns. They also use VPNs and proxies to hide their true IP addresses.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that many spammers use compromised email accounts, botnets, and rented servers to send spam. They also mention that some email marketing services with lax policies are used to send spam campaigns.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares that a significant portion of spam originates from botnets, which are networks of infected computers controlled by spammers. They also mention that some spammers use compromised email accounts and free email services.
Email Marketer from Email Geeks shares that there is a lot of spammer use of AmazonSES these days and seemingly on the increase (possibly because more networks are blocking/throttling AWS IPs than they used to?). Still not as much as comes out of Gmail which still isn't as much as comes out of Outlook.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that spam comes from compromised accounts, botnets, and email service providers with lax policies. Some providers turn a blind eye because of the profit generated. They recommend reporting spam to help mitigate it.
Email marketer from SendPulse shares that spammers often use botnets, rented email lists, and compromised servers to send large volumes of spam. They also emphasize the importance of following email marketing best practices to avoid being flagged as a spammer.
Email marketer from Hubspot explains that spam originates from multiple sources including compromised email accounts, rented email lists and malicious servers. They note that some smaller ESPs may have less stringent filtering systems therefore being more susceptible for spammers to use.
Email marketer from Mailjet answers explains that spam can originate from various sources including compromised email accounts, shared hosting environments, and even poorly configured email marketing platforms. They highlight the importance of email authentication to combat spam.
Email marketer from Reddit details a variety of approaches used by spammers. These approaches include using web hosting providers that ignore spam complaints, SMTP servers on residential ISPs, and purchasing old domains with established reputations to bypass spam filters.
What the experts say6Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains that all the cloud providers are pretty messy and it’s very, very hard to police sending particularly in a B2B environment. So many ESPs built their compliance teams based on things like GPT and FBLs and … they simply don’t work in a B2B environment.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that compliance is going to get worse before it gets better and it’s going to take some innovative thinking and resource investment to actually have the ESPs stopping spam more effectively. She adds that she is not sure they have any real incentive to do so because filters are more selective and a bad customer only hurts themselves. There’s just not the incentive to throw off bad customers that there used to be and compliance desks are expensive. They think we’re going to see spam get worse and more and more ESPs just not having the ability to deal with it.
Expert from Email Geeks thinks filters are going to get more selective and stricter and they’re going to care less and less about false positives. The pendulum is swinging in a way marketers are going to like (less ‘you can’t do that’ from their ESPs) and going to hate (filters and mail clients are going to be less and less marketer friendly - apple mpp is only the tip of the iceberg here).
Expert from Email Geeks explains that Gmail and Microsoft are two of the absolute worst in terms of filthy spammers, and it’s all B2B spam, prettied up as “customized and carefully chosen outreach mail” — and so much of it is just out and out spam.
Expert from SpamResource.com explains that spam frequently originates from botnets, compromised servers, and hijacked email accounts. These sources enable spammers to send high volumes of unsolicited emails while masking their true identities and locations.
Expert from Word to the Wise shares that bulletproof hosting providers are often used to facilitate spam campaigns. These providers allow spammers to operate with minimal oversight and often ignore abuse complaints, making it easier to send large volumes of unsolicited email.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Cisco identifies that botnets, hijacked accounts, and compromised servers are frequently used by spammers. Cisco outlines the importance of network security and email authentication to mitigate spam attacks.
Documentation from Cloudflare describes that malicious actors leverage botnets, compromised email accounts and unsecure servers to send spam. They highlight the use of email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM and DMARC as effective tools in identifying spam.
Documentation from Spamhaus explains that botnets are a primary source of spam. These networks of compromised computers are used to send large volumes of unsolicited email, often without the computer owner's knowledge.
Documentation from Microsoft answers explains that spammers frequently use botnets, compromised accounts, and open proxies to send unsolicited emails. Microsoft actively works to block these sources and prevent spam from reaching its users.
Documentation from Talos Intelligence details that spammers exploit various platforms, including compromised servers, bulletproof hosting providers, and vulnerable websites, to send spam. They also mention the use of dynamic IP addresses to evade detection.