Matt has posted a bit more about the SenderScore Blacklist, following up on my post about the changes at Comcast. George Bilbrey, VP and General Manager, for Return Path followed up with him to explain a bit more about the blacklist. George says:

• The blacklist is based on more than the summary Sender Score on average, IPs on the blacklist have a score much, much less than 70.
• There is not a direct relationship between the blacklist and Sender Score Certified.
• You can’t buy yourself off the blacklist with Sender Score Certified and it is not possible to be on both the blacklist and qualify for SSC.
• We don’t pitch any of our services to folks who have contacted us because they have been blocked.

Matt is looking for experiences from people. My experiences are as follows.

1. My client that was blocked by Comcast, with the reject message referencing the SenderScore blacklist, had a SenderScore of 65.
2. Comcast suggests that senders sign up for the Comcast FBL as part of the remediation for a SenderScore block. The Comcast FBL is a service provided by ReturnPath. During the signup process at a ReturnPath branded website, there is a note that says, “We may email you about your registration, service updates, and information on existing and new Return Path products.”

I know just how difficult it is to run a blacklist while offering services to those who are blacklisted. My first job in the delivery arena was trying to manage the services division at MAPS (now Trend Micro). MAPS was just offering a range of blacklists and outsourced abuse management services.

ReturnPath is offering a whole host of services. They are a reputation service, they are a blacklist service, they are a whitelist service, they are a FBL service. On top of all that, they are also an acquisition mailer and an email list provider.

Based on my own experience it is very difficult to sell services to companies that you are blacklisting. It is also difficult to sell services to companies you are directly competing with. It remains to be seen if ReturnPath can successfully manage such a diverse and conflicting range of services.