Restrict Trial User Access to Exim Mail Servers

[RadixHosting]

Just to give something back to the community.

As owner of a hosting provider company, I face the problem of abusive users frequently. More than 90% of all abuse (or attempt to abuse more likely) on my server come from free trial accounts. I offer free trial access to my servers for people who want to try things out before they purchase a hosting package, but off course this attracts spammers. To prevent trial users from using my server for spamming purposes, I modified my exim.pl file to prevent trial users from accessing the Exim mail server.

I haven't had any spam issues ever since I configured this.

You can read a complete HowTo on my blog:
http://www.securedminds.net/?p=11

Good luck. :)

EDIT: Don't forget to rep me. :angel:

[Decker]

Good idea, but I've never allowed free 'trial' accounts for the abuse reason - they can abuse it and move on.

No harm to the majority that really wish to trial but it is too much of a risk to other clients.

Not quite as much but some of the 'money back' requests/orders are the same.

[[JSH]John]

That's a nice how-to Josh :) I have been allowing clients to trial my services for a short while, but I monitor them very closely to make sure no spam is being sent out from their accounts and that they don't upload any phishing sites. This could come in handy and might just save a bit of time.

[RadixHosting]

This "hack" in combination with a script detecting phishing sites will cover almost 99% of all the potential trial abuse.

EDIT: Someone actually -rep'd me for this thread...

[Calinax]

Thanks for that but the best way is to not offer a trial account. Instead you can offer a demo account.

[RadixHosting]

Haven't had any problems with trial accounts after installing this. Off course you need to perform checks on the information provided during the sign up.