A US-based website owner is blaming Clear Communications for his name and email being used as the return address by a spammer who has sent out tens of thousands of unsolicited email.
However Clear says it is not at fault, and does not tolerate spamming.
Charles Hall, who works for G2 Computer Intelligence, an online news site, has sent out an email in response to thousands of bounced emails being returned to his address.
"Someone hacked into the computer system of an ISP in New Zealand and did this. And used my email address as the 'sender'," says Hall in his email.
He says the ISP responsible is Clear. He includes the phone numbers for "president [sic]" Peter Kaliaropoulos and network manager Drew Gilpin in his email and asks recipients to contact either man and "tell them what you think of spammers and people who knowingly permit spamming".
Gilpin says he feels for Hall who must be receiving not only bounced emails but a flaming as the supposed sender, however he says Clear has not had its system compromised.
"We're working with a customer whose mail server was compromised. Initially we thought it was simply an open relay but it appears to go further than that," says Gilpin. He says Clear reacted to Hall's email as soon as it was notified of the problem and immediately took the customer offline.
"They understood our position completely. It's part of our technical brief not to allow open relays as well as our legal position - it's in our terms and conditions." Gilpin says he has been in contact with Hall and his company repeatedly over the course of the past week.
"We have done everything we can to assist them and frustratingly all they can do is wait for the storm to blow over."
Hall did not respond to IDGNet's request for comment.