Michael Pollitt | freelance technology journalist

A guestbook spammer has used my name and e-mail address more than 40,000 times to promote pay-per-click pharmacy search sites hosted by Everyones Internet (EV1, EV1Servers), the largest independent ISP in the United States. Sneaky, eh? My story – An unwelcome guest of spam – in the Guardian newspaper today tells you more.

There are 40,700 hits of my details in Google this morning thanks to the spammer’s continued activity. My inbox has received over 1,300 unwanted e-mails from spammed guestbooks and some blogs (it’s fortunate that very few sites send automatic acknowledgements).

Everyones Internet was in a strong position to persuade klikvip.com (the owner of the spammed sites which a Klikvip.com affiilate is promoting by spam) to stop the abuse in March. There is, after all, an acceptable use policy. But EV1 repeatedly refused to talk to me and, judging by the continued spamming, has done nothing whatsoever to help. Charles Arthur, Guardian newspaper technology editor, also tried to contact EV1 on Monday – his messages were not returned either.

Why, you now ask, didn’t EV1 do anything about my numerous complaints over the last five weeks? Unfortunately, EV1Servers’ management (the EV1 company hosting the spammed sites) won’t say. Is it because they approve of what’s been happening to me? And, despite the acceptable use policy, are they actually helping spammers? It seems an obvious yet disturbing conclusion that’s been reached before.

Here is some more technical background to my story.

Update 28 April: Read what Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle says. He called EV1 for a comment and got nowhere. There’s an interesting discussion going on here too. And in EV1Servers’ forums. The guestbook spammer? Still spamming. My inbox? Taking hits. The spammed sites at EV1? Online. Have I heard anything from EV1? Of course not. So, I think I’ll keep on their case, don’t you?

Update 29 April: EV1 now seems to have taken the two main spammed sites – search-pharmacy-online.com and online-search-catalog.com offline. This is a useful first step by EV1. However, the spamming is continuing this morning (I’m receiving a stream of acknowledgement e-mails) and 17 other related sites (see previous posts) hosted at EV1 remain online. I will continue to identify sites hosted by EV1 that are involved in spam support as the spamming in my name continues and acknowledgement e-mails arrive in my inbox. I’ve now posted twice on this topic in EV1Servers’ forums. And I’ve still heard nothing directly from EV1’s management.

A clone of search-pharmacy-online.com, bsearches.com, has now appeared at Pilosoft (New York) at colo-69-31-46-181.pilosoft.com. This was found via a link in a spam acknowledgement message I received this morning.

Update 30 April: Well, it just had to happen, didn’t it? The Guardian’s tech section has been targeted by a pharmacy spammer. I’m continuing to respond to questions in EV1Servers’ forum. And the spamming continues.

Update 2 May: Charles Arthur has blogged more information at the Guardian. We’re both working hard on spammer tracing this morning. I’d welcome more e-mail tip-offs on likely spammer identities related to the possibly connected  spam problems here and at The Guardian following my story last week. Information on EV1 hosting of spammer sites would be very useful too.