In relation to the policy, where it says: "must not force the sender to use a form."
as someone that reports phishing websites, I find the use of forms helpful, as it ensures the company receives the report, particularly where they implement a CAPTCHA.
To require the resource to only accept abuse reports via email, means all the criminals have to do is flood the mailbox, making it physically impossible to receive the abuse reports.
If the policy could be amended to include a suggestion that the abuse mailbox contain a verification procedure (such as "your email has been received. Please "click here" to confirm you sent it") it would improve efficiency all around.
In relation to Nick Hilliard's email, where they say:
" it is beyond inappropriate for this working group to expect the RIPE NCC to withdraw numbering resources if member organisations don't comply with an arbitrary policy which forces the use of SMTP email like this."
This is, in a nutshell, what is wrong with this RIR, and others, such as ARIN. Often I will look up abuse contacts on ARIN, to find that the abuse mailbox bounces, and a message such as "ARIN has attempted to verify this email address since 10-11-2010" - almost 10 YEARS!
So, what are you seriously suggesting? Because these people that become offended at the suggestion that it's unreasonable for someone to ensure an email address is valid once per year (very onerous i'm sure), never really say what they really mean, which is really what is inappropriate: that criminals should be able to use a resource indefinitely to pump out spam, host phishing websites, co-ordinate botnets etc... and that the person that receives this crap is not even entitled to let the resource owner know?
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