LISTED: ResearchGate

We just never got around to blogging about it, but it was one of the first things we listed. We keep seeing more of their stuff, and listing all of it.

For other views, see

  • http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201208/2012082001-researchgate-spam.html
  • https://www.biostars.org/p/63561/
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ResearchGate#Criticisms
  • http://www.quora.com/How-did-ResearchGate-acquire-2-2MM-users-All-by-spamming
  • https://www.reddit.com/r/compsci/comments/1i5hpm/researchgate_please_stop_spamming_me_again/

and countless other similar posts.

The latest bit is that they have hosting in Peer 1’s datacenter in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and they’re spamming from there, too. The CASL might take care of that. If you received spam from ResearchGate from 209.15.214.0/24, make a complaint to the Canadian authorities as well. (If you use bl.scientificspam.net for blocking spam, you won’t get any, of course.)

Currently listed IP addresses:

  • ResearchGATE Corporation PEER1-RESEARCHGATECORPORATION-01 (NET-69-174-243-128-1) 69.174.243.128 – 69.174.243.191
  • 216.152.133.228 to 237 (unSWIPped range by Peer 1 in violation of Section 4.2.3.7.1 of the ARIN Number Resource Policy)
  • 66.135.44.244 to 253 in Dogster, Inc. PEER1–DOGSTER-INC–01 (NET-66-135-44-192-1) 66.135.44.192 – 66.135.44.255
  • 207.198.102.84 to 93 (unSWIPped range by Peer 1)
  • 209.15.214.196 to 206 (unSWIPped range by Peer 1)

2 thoughts on “LISTED: ResearchGate

  1. RocketScientist Post author

    Timeline:

    • 216.152.133.232, an unSWIPped IP address in NET-216-152-128-0-1, was listed on 2014-03-05 (exactly one day after Sci Spam was born)
    • 66.135.44.253, a part of Peer 1’s NET-66-135-44-192-1 assignment to Dogster, was listed on 2014-03-12
    • 207.198.102.90, a part of another unSWIPped range in NET-207-198-64-0-1, was listed on 2014-03-13
    • 216.152.133.231 was listed on 2014-03-20
    • 66.135.44.246 was listed on 2014-04-02
    • 207.198.102.93 was listed on 2014-05-16
    • 207.198.102.89 was listed on 2014-05-24
    • 70.33.254.180, a part of a network not even mentioned above, NET-70-33-254-0-1 (Peer 1 ServerBeach allocation), was listed on 2014-06-22
    • 207.198.102.86 was listed on 2014-07-29
    • 216.152.133.237 was listed on 2014-08-06
    • the domain name researchgate.net was listed when the domain name BL was created on 2014-09-23
    • 66.135.44.247 was listed on 2014-11-15
    • the IPs remaining unlisted but identified as ResearchGate by reverse DNS in 207.198.102.84 to 93 were escalated to on 2014-11-15
    • the IPs remaining unlisted but identified as ResearchGate by reverse DNS in 66.135.44.244 to 253 were escalated to on 2014-11-15
    • the IPs remaining unlisted but identified as ResearchGate by reverse DNS in 216.152.133.228 to 237 were escalated to on 2014-11-15
    • the IPs remaining unlisted but identified as ResearchGate by reverse DNS in 70.33.254.179 to 181 were escalated to on 2014-11-15
    • NET-69-174-243-128-1 (a /26 dedicated to ResearchGate) was escalated to on 2015-04-23
    • rgstatic.net was listed on 2015-05-13
    • NET-209-15-249-176-1 (a /28 dedicated to RCTC CORPORATION, but in sole use of ResearchGate GmbH by reverse DNS) was escalated to on 2015-05-18
    • NET-209-15-192-0-1 (a /18 of Peer 1 including two of the above; 16,384 IP addresses) was escalated to on 2015-05-31
    • Peer 1 develops an interest in the matter: 2016-06-14
    • Peer 1 outsources handling of the problem customer to the customer itself: 2016-06-16
    • Progress in the matter: TBD
    Reply

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