Occasionally cpi.to shortened links will be used in spam or to point to malicious content. We take this abuse of our service very seriously and do everything we can to prevent it. Here are some of the ways we help to keep our users safe: –
- Shortened URLs are permanent – we don’t allow users to change their destinations once they’ve been created. This prevents “bait and switch” tactics by spammers who might link to real content first and then malware later.
- We check all our links against various blacklists such as SURBL. We update these lists regularly and our technology applies these updates across our entire database of links immediately.
- When we flag a link as spam, we add a very prominent warning page so that visitors know it is likely to be malicious. To help those fighting spam we still show the original destination, but users can no longer visit it without manually copying/pasting the full link into their browser.
- We thoroughly investigate any complaints of abuse we receive and have a dedicated contact email address for these. We aim to act on all abuse complaints within 24 hours (but typically manage better than this).
- We don’t just disable individual URLs in response to complaints like some similar services. Since a spammer could create many similar links this would obviously be useless. We blacklist by domain or track down links based on the creator’s IP instead whenever possible.
- Our terms are very clear on what usage isn’t allowed. Because we disallow use in any commercial email (whether or not it’s technically unsolicited spam), there isn’t any scope for spammers to skirt around our policies.
- We blacklist other URL shortening/redirection services we know about. This stops spammers creating “chains” of redirects to help them circumvent our protections.
We hate spam usage of our service and is.gd has no relationship with spammers. We never send any spam email and only ever email people who have emailed us first (e.g. to respond to questions we get about the site).