02/15/2016
Managing SPAM
Will it ever end?
We occasionally receive complaints that a SPAM filter isn’t blocking enough, that it is blocking too much, or that it seems schizophrenic in its decision of what to block and when. Hopefully this will help.
Some of the time when the SPAM filter is behaving oddly, it is due to a problem. This is almost always going to be an “all or nothing” type of event, where the SPAM filter appears to be blocking all email or no email at all. If this is the case, contact your network administrator. The point of this article though, is all of the other times, when the SPAM filter is actually working properly…
These issues are not exclusive to any one company or a specific SPAM filter software. This is because the software that filters SPAM is only as intelligent as the programmers who wrote it, the people who manage it (you), and the senders who email your company. Generally, all inbound email is compared against a huge set of criteria to determine whether or not it is SPAM. Some of the things examined are the content of the email; the way the email is formatted; the source of the email and how the source communicates; the reputation of the sender, sender’s domain, and sender’s IP Address; etc. Beyond all of these checks that are performed on every inbound email, the software has to “learn” what SPAM is and what it isn’t. An email from Bob .net may come through for a period of time, and then suddenly Bob gets flagged because of one email, and then it’s to the quarantine from that point forward. The only way to resolve the issue is then to manually add Bob’s email address, and possibly his entire domain, to the SPAM filter White List (and you may have to do this several times depending on what Bob or someone else in his organization has been up to). Many companies use email services hosted on shared servers and THAT can be a huge problem. Even though Bob and his entire organization are well behaved, happy emailers; Joe at WeHateTheWorld, Inc. may be hosting his email on the same server and sending tons of SPAM. The identification of Bob’s email as SPAM could be based on their shared IP Address and have nothing what so ever to do with Bob (and Bob will most likely be clueless about this issue). Additionally, viruses often “spoof” the sender of an infected email that can cause SPAM filters to block the wrong person. If Joe contracts one of these viruses that begins sending out the infected or SPAM emails, they may look like the sender is Margaret at an entirely different company. The next thing you know, Margaret’s emails are being quarantined, and she may even be getting nasty phone calls from people even though she’s done nothing wrong.
Sooooooo… what to do? Well, be patient. If you need or want a SPAM filter, this is how life will be for you. It is the cost of doing business via electronic communication. If you are in the middle of a huge Ad campaign and need EVERY email as it comes in, SPAM and all, you can be temporarily removed from the SPAM filter. Another option, if you cannot wait for the daily SPAM notification emails, is to access the
SPAM filter periodically throughout the day and check on things. Regardless of your individual email needs, using a SPAM filter is helpful, as once your email address is “out there” the amount of SPAM you receive will increase rapidly, but it requires time to manage it. Most HIT Solutions clients that have SPAM filters are currently using one of two products and we’d be happy to answer questions or assist with training on these products, just give us a call. Here are a couple of pointers that apply to most SPAM filters:
• Check your SPAM filter as often as possible so as not to miss time-sensitive communications.
• Be careful when deciding what to white-list or black-list.The safest option is to select individual email addresses.If you wish to white list an entire domain (an entire company), make sure that the domain is specific for their company.For example, white-listing hit-sol.com might make sense so that you receive all of our emails, but gmail.com would be a bad choice because many spammers use Gmail accounts.Also, be VERY careful when selecting an IP address to white-list, as some companies host their email externally and this could be a shared server as we discussed earlier.
• Use extreme caution when selecting to have an email delivered from the SPAM filter to your Inbox.Often, the From Address or Subject Line will appear fine, yet the email will be SPAM.Often you can select to have the email delivered without white-listing the sender.That way you can examine the email and decide after whether or not it should have been flagged as SPAM.
Unfortunately, the amount of SPAM is only going to continue to increase, and as much as managing a SPAM filter can be time consuming, weeding through 50 + SPAM emails a day can certainly affect productivity even more. If you are not currently using a SPAM filter and would like more information on some of the options available, please let us know. We’re here to help!
