March 1, 2005 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Silicon.com reported earlier today that MCI has finally given up hosting virus maker Send-Safe.com. Spamhaus originally reported that the telecom was making up to $5 billion per year hosting the site.
Send-Safe distributes a program that works with "zombie-making" viruses such as the Sobig, Sober and MyDoom, and uses Windows PCs to send spam via an ISP's mail server to avoid being blocked by blacklists of domain names used by spammers. Send Safe makes its money by selling email lists to these spammers.
HostSearch.com recently contacted law enforcement officials in Virginia where MCI is based and where it is also illegal to distribute malware sekking comment but police only commented that they “do not give legal advice”.
"The amount of heat it [MCI] was getting was too much. But the rest of the spam gangs are still there," said Steve Linford, director of anti-spam campaign group Spamhaus, "We're happy for all these things, but we're not getting rid of the site - we'll have to keep kicking it off other ISPs for years. It would have been much better news if MCI had changed its acceptable use policy,"
The site has also been hosted in China, Russia, and most recently Lycos for a 48 hour period.
