Heads-up: AT&T apparently going to whitelist-only inbound mail

Tue Oct 21 21:57:58 UTC 2003

Here is my experience (names are changed to protect...) :

Failed to deliver to 'AAA at att.com'
SMTP module(domain att.com) reports:
  message text rejected by ckmsi2.att.com:
  550 5.7.1 Your message was rejected as possible spam. Please call your 
AT&T contact. [3]

Failed to deliver to 'BBB at att.com'
SMTP module(domain att.com) reports:
  message text rejected by ckmsi2.att.com:
  550 5.7.1 Your message was rejected as possible spam. Please call your 
AT&T contact. [3]

Failed to deliver to 'CCC at att.com'
SMTP module(domain att.com) reports:
  message text rejected by ckmsi2.att.com:
  550 5.7.1 Your message was rejected as possible spam. Please call your 
AT&T contact. [3]

Failed to deliver to 'DDD at att.com'
SMTP module(domain att.com) reports:
  message text rejected by ckmsi2.att.com:
  550 5.7.1 Your message was rejected as possible spam. Please call your 
AT&T contact. [3]

Failed to deliver to 'EEE at att.com'
SMTP module(domain att.com) reports:
  message text rejected by ckmsi2.att.com:
  550 5.7.1 Your message was rejected as possible spam. Please call your 
AT&T contact. [3]

On Tuesday, October 21, 2003, at 05:46 PM, Mike Tancsa wrote:

>
>
> Wow, this sounds like a pretty extreme shotgun approach. (or is it 
> April 1st somewhere).  Is AT&T going to make this whitelist publicly 
> available ?  Perhaps if there was some global white list that everyone 
> could consult against, it might be a little more useable.  Still, what 
> do you do about multi-stage relays ?
>
>         ---Mike
>
>
> At 05:24 PM 21/10/2003, Jeff Wasilko wrote:
>
>> ----- Forwarded message -----
>>
>> Return-Path: <rm-antiattspam at ems.att.com>
>> Message-ID: <3F80414B002D0EC2 at attrh0i.attrh.att.com> (added by
>> postmaster at attrh1i.attrh.att.com)
>> Content-Disposition: inline
>> Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
>> Content-Type: text/plain
>> MIME-Version: 1.0
>> X-Mailer: MIME::Lite 2.102  (B2.12; Q2.03)
>> Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 20:21:50 UT
>> Subject: *** ACTION: IP Address of Outbound SMTP Server Requested 
>> (Updated 10/21/03)
>> From: rm-antiattspam at ems.att.com
>>
>> AT&T Business Partners & Customers
>>
>> AT&T has received many of the requested IP addresses in response to an
>> e-mail originally broadcast yesterday to our business partners and
>> clients.  However, we have also received many concerned responses to
>> the original request.
>>
>> This 2nd e-mail is to let you know that this is a legitimate AT&T
>> request asking for your cooperation, which will let us improve the
>> service that AT&T offers you and that our partnership requires.   We
>> have provided a toll-free number below to help you confirm the
>> legitimacy of this request.
>>
>> We have assembled the distribution list for this e-mail by looking up
>> the administrative contacts for each of the known e-mail domains we
>> currently exchange e-mail with, referencing WHOIS and other such
>> services available via the Internet.
>>
>> What AT&T is asking is for you to help AT&T to restrict incoming mail
>> to just our known and trusted sources (e.g., business partners, 
>> clients
>> and customers).  Therefore, we need to know which IP address(es) are
>> used by your outbound e-mail service so we can selectively permit 
>> them.
>>  Please send this information to the following e-mail address
>> (rm-antiattspam at ems.att.com).
>>
>> If you need assistance determining what these IP addresses are, please
>> contact your company's administrative e-mail server support / network
>> administration personnel.   We regret that AT&T is burdening you with
>> this request, but our AT&T security team is advising that we take this
>> step to help safeguard our e-mail systems, which ultimately will help
>> us serve you better.
>>
>> Please contact us with any concerns or questions:
>> AT&T Security Help Desk 1-800-456-4230, prompt 4 (8am - 10pm est)
>>
>> Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.  We appreciate 
>> your
>> cooperation.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Brian Williams, IP Network Services
>> Tim Scholl - District Manager, IP Network Services
>> Kevin O'Connell - Division Manager, Information Technology Services
>> Engineering
>> Bill O'Hern - Division Manager, Network Security
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message (Sent Monday, 10/20/03) -----
>> AT&T has an urgent situation with our anti-spam list. In order to
>> continue to allow email to AT&T you need to provide the IP addresses 
>> of
>> all your outbound email gateways. If you do not respond immediately,
>> your access may not continue. The required information should be sent
>> to rm-antiattspam at ems.att.com.
>>
>> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
                                  Regards
                                  Marshall Eubanks

T.M. Eubanks
e-mail : marshall.eubanks at telesuite.com
http://www.telesuite.com