How do I get off UCEPROTECT?
This article covers the levels of blacklisting at UCEPROTECT and removal from the blacklists.
Background
To understand UCEPROTECT, you need to cast your mind back to the early days of the Wild West Internet. Companies and individuals could set up a website in days and often did. Spam was everywhere. Blacklists arose to combat spam. And, most of the Internet backend world was made up of tech geeks. Professionalism was at a minimum. UCEPROTECT came out during this time and has not changed since. It's a simple algorithm.
The Levels
NEVER PAY for removal from a blacklist! Legitimate blacklists, including UCEPROTECT, have free ways to be delisted.
Level 1 is made up of IP addresses that directly sent spam to UCE's spam traps. These are known offenders. If you're on this list, fix your email hygiene immediately. Inbox providers and businesses often see this as a legitimate blacklist. If UCE no longer detects email from your IP addresses at their spam traps, you'll be delisted after 7 days.
Level 2 is a blacklist-by-association. IP addresses adjacent to yours have been caught in UCEPROTECT's spam traps at levels that they believe warrant the entire subnet being considered a source of spam and blacklisted. If the volume of spam email from the network is reduced below their algorithm's threshold, the subnet will be delisted within the 7-day period.
Level 3 is the ultimate guilt-by-association. The entire IP address space of an ASN is listed because spam from IP addresses in the ASN hit a preset threshold. In this case, the entire ASN should be automatically delisted when the UCEPROTECT SPAMSCORE for that ASN drops below a certain level in a 7-day moving average. You can learn more about how UCEPROTECT lists ASNs here.
Note: If you're not seeing email delivery issues, you can safely ignore the blacklisting. However, good email hygiene is always a good idea.