The abuse.ro Domain Blacklist (DBL) is a DNS-based blacklist (DNSBL) that lists domains found to be sending spam. Its policy is to classify any unsolicited email, meaning any mail sent without the recipient's express consent, as spam. The organization uses a network of secret spamtraps to identify offending messages and domains.
Technically, when a message is caught in a spamtrap, the sender domain is analyzed. If the domain is confirmed to be not spoofed, it is added to the abuse.ro Domain Blacklist (DBL). This blacklist is used by email server administrators who can configure their systems to reject or filter mail from domains listed on this blocklist. It's important to note that abuse.ro does not block any email directly; it only provides the data for others to use.
The abuse.ro Domain Blacklist (DBL) is run by abuse.ro. The organization describes itself as a collection of classification and reputation databases for public IP addresses and web domains. They focus on providing data to help system administrators fight spam.
The delisting process from this blocklist is manual. Before requesting removal, you must ensure you have stopped the source of the spam associated with your domain. This includes performing checks such as:
Once you have fixed the underlying issue, you must send a delisting request from your domain's postmaster address (for example, postmaster@yourdomain.com) to the contact address provided by abuse.ro. You should include evidence that the spam flow has stopped. The blacklist operators may send a confirmation message back to verify your request before delisting the domain.
The impact of being listed on the abuse.ro Domain Blacklist (DBL) is generally considered low. The severity of a blacklist listing depends entirely on how many mail server operators use that specific list to filter incoming email. While any listing can cause email deliverability problems, this particular blacklist is not as widely adopted as some of the larger, more impactful ones. However, being listed on any blocklist is a sign of a potential reputation issue that should be addressed to avoid being rejected by the networks that do use this list.