Spam Protection for Email

We are taking great strides to reduce the spam that our users see. Below you will see some of the steps we process each time mail is received by our servers, prior to forwarding that message to your inbox.

First, we are scanning each message for viruses. We download new signatures daily to stay on top of the latest threats. Next is spam protection. This is one of the most intensive tasks for any provider of email these days.

We utilize several "blacklists" that many providers use that have IP addresses and email addresses of known spammers. One of the most popular we use is Spamhaus. You can click on either one of the below buttons to be taken to their website and lookup suspected IPs. You may also want to click here to read more about the methodology we are using. It is also documented on Spamhaus.org. They have four options, SBL, XBL, PBL and ZEN. ZEN is simply the option to deploy to have all three lists (SBL, XBL, PBL) in one call to their site. You can click on any of the below buttons to read more on the respective lists.

                  


[Note: One thing we have noticed if we do receive a spam message and look it up from the above button, is that even though we received the one message, by the time we look it up it is now in the database. If you then check the time/date it was added, it was indeed added soon after we received the message. So we won't see it again! These are usually related to the new wave of spam, infecting a user with a virus to send out spam on their behalf.]

Here, continuing with the above mentioned methodology, we run the ever popular SpamAssassin. This uses heuristics to rate the probability that a message could be spam. This is where the process starts to slip into the gray area where messages could be legitimate, so more caution is used prior to blocking a message. These messages you may still receive, but they are flagged as "***SPAM". This way you can setup a rule to push them to a folder and look at them later to see if we flagged anything legitimate, but without losing the message.

From there, you can use our BayesSpam filter to train your inbox for that last bit of remaining email to what is "normal" email. You can locate that option under the "Options" tab withn your webmail interface.

After all of that, we do some final validation checks and send the email to you. All of this is happening behind the scenes and within seconds! We hope you enjoy our efforts.

So, how do spammers get your email address in the first place?

Well, if you are continuing to read and are hearing this for the first time, get ready. The answer is, in more places than you realize. If you are careful while on the Internet, you can reduce your chances quite a bit as the well known ways are mitigated by your ISP with methods described above.

First, spammers are usually very intelligent, so don't think they aren't because they will have already won. To that end, it will always be a battle for ISPs to stay on top of it. The most obvious way, but still worth reminding is when you give it out. Especially when you are using your email address in news groups, blogs, etc. If it is out there, spammers are crawling the net looking for it with automated tools designed to extract emails from webpages. So when you post and need people to reply use a totally separate email address. For that email, create rules that forward to your real address from that site or with a particular subject line you have asked you replies to contain.

Another way is through direct captures when you visit websites. Some of the newer browser versions prevent this, but it is very easy to capture an email from Outlook by including a snippet of code on a webpage that you can't see. When you goto the page, it just grabs your email address without you knowing. Then this name is thrown in with the others and sold. Similarly, once everyone started catching on to this and browsers started blocking it, is to just infect you with a worm or virus.

If they can get you to perform an action that infects you, they in turn grab your email address and send it to them either directly through your email client or via their own that they included in the infectious payload. And hey, while your at it, go ahead and send some spam on their behalf - this is what 90% of the worms do now anyway. Oh, and if they didn't get it from you, they got it from your friend that has your email (and whom you trust) so when your friend gets infected, it sends you a friendly email you click on (because it is from your friend - or looks that way) and now you are infected too. And great news, both of your address books are sent to the spammers to continue sending you mail you don't want.

Why? Well, back in the day it would be because they could..but now, money! These pieces of spam and worms are after your passwords, after your personal information, so they can then get even more personal with the spam so it is even more believable. Ever see the one that looks like it is from ebay asking you to reset your password?

Okay, one last way to really set you off hiding..hacking! You have a firewall huh? Good, you are set. Oh, but the credit card company that has all of your info didn't have one, or it was down for repair, or more likely, the little store down the street that just has a single computer, but they keep your card number for your convenience. Well, whomever doesn't keep up with their patches (which there are approximately 100 per year for Windows alone, not to mention all of the applications that run on it) is susceptible.

Happy surfing!

Last updated: July 14, 2007