Let's start with the individual who generated the complaint in the first place. This is the person using the SpamKiller software. His email to me (which was auto-generated by SpamKiller) contained the following subject line:
"UCE Complaint (So-and-So Newsletter*)"
The body started out:
"I have received the attached unsolicited e-mail from someone at your domain. [He had not.]
"I do not wish to receive such messages in the future, so please take the appropriate measures to ensure that this unsolicited e-mail is not repeated.
"--- This message was intercepted by SpamKiller (www.spamkiller.com) ---"
The full text of the intercepted message followed.
The header of the offending email clearly showed that the sender of the email was someone from so-and-so.com*. Unfortunately, the newsletter concerned contained virtually nothing but my article interrupted by what I assume were paid ads.
I'm sure that the paid advertisers in this particular ezine also received a complaint and that WeStopSpam.net received a copy and automatically forwarded it to the advertiser's ISP and/or webhost who may or may not have shut them down, at least temporarily. (Hopefully not all webhosts are of the calibre of DumbHost when it comes to this sort of thing.)
So, this individual, in his zealousness to rid the Internet of spam, blithely dragged the names and reputations of at least half a dozen perfectly innocent bystanders through the mud.
The moral of the story? If you use spam-filtering software and the complaint-generating function that comes with it, have the common decency and responsibility to stop and think about who you're adding to your hitlist. If you don't, and you get it wrong, don't be surprised to find a process- server on your doorstep.
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