State of Oregon - Online Services |
| 155 Cottage St NE Salem OR 97301 |
| Phone: 503-378-2135 Fax: 503-378-5543 |
| Email: support@dialoregon.net |
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I received a message tagged as *****SPAM***** in
the subject of the email. What does this mean?
If you are tagging my messages as spam, does that
mean you are reading my email?
If the spam filter thinks the message is spam,
why did I receive the message?
How do I tell my mail reader to ignore messages
tagged as spam?
I'm still getting too much spam. How can I
stop the spam that gets through the spam filter?
I received spam but it wasn't tagged as spam!
Why didn't the filter catch it?
I received pornographic spam! Shouldn't the
spam filter block pornography?
I received a message tagged as spam but it is not
spam! How can I stop this from happening again?
I'm not receiving some of my email. Is the
spam filter blocking my mail?
Should I reply to spam?
Who do I complain to about spam?
How did spammers get my email address?
I received spam that isn't even addressed to
me. How is that possible?
How does the spam filter work?
How much spam does the filter trap?
Will email I send be trapped by the spam filter
or tagged as spam?
Questions/Answers
I received a message tagged as
*****SPAM***** in the subject of the email. What does this
mean?
Our spam filter has added the *****SPAM***** tag to the subject of
your message because there is a good probability (but not 100%)
that the message is spam. If you trust our filter or don't
recognize the sender, you can simply delete the message without
having to read it. If you don't want these messages in the first
place, it may be possible to set-up your mail reader to either
move them to a different folder or just delete them automatically
(see How do I tell my mail reader to ignore
messages tagged as spam?).
If you are tagging my messages as spam, does that
mean you are reading my email?
Absolutely not. No one is reading your email. The filter is a
computer program which looks for patterns in each message it
scans. There is no human intervention involved in the filtering
process.
If the spam filter thinks the message is spam, why
did I receive the message?
Each message passing through the spam filter is assigned a spam
score. Messages with a very high spam score are deleted (you
never receive them) because there is a very high probability that
they are spam. Messages with a moderate spam score are delivered
to your mailbox but tagged as spam. This keeps the spam filter
from deleting legitimate messages that might accidentally be
tagged as spam. Messages with a low spam score are delivered to
your mailbox without modification.
Thus, there is a tradeoff. Because the spam filter is not 100%
accurate and will accidentally tag some legitimate mail as spam
(those with moderate spam scores), the filter will allow these
messages through (rather than deleting them) but will tag them as
spam. If you trust our spam filter and don't want these messages
in the first place, it may be possible to set-up your mail reader
to either move them to a different folder or just delete them
automatically (see How do I tell my mail reader to
ignore messages tagged as spam?).
How do I tell my mail reader to ignore messages
tagged as spam?
Many mail readers support filtering which will allow you to
configure your reader to either move messages tagged as spam by
our spam filter to a separate spam folder or just delete them
completely. For more information, please see our
Spam Filtering Instructions.
I'm still getting too much spam. How can I stop
the spam that gets through the spam filter?
If the majority of spam you receive is being tagged as spam
(*****SPAM*****), you may be able to configure your mail reader to
ignore these messages. For more information, please see our Spam Filtering Instructions.
If most of the spam you receive is not being tagged as spam, then
you can purchase commercial spam filtering software to install on
your computer. A quick search on google.com for 'Windows Spam Filters'
(or replace Windows with your operating system) will give you
several places to start looking. A good site with reviews of
several spam filters can be found at email.about.com.
Please note that Online Services does not endorse any particular
spam filtering software and may not be able to support any
software you install on your computer (you will most likely have
to contact the vendor for installation and support).
I received spam but it wasn't tagged as spam! Why
didn't the filter catch it?
No spam filter is 100% perfect. Some spam will get by the filter
and some legitimate mail will get tagged as spam. If we make the
spam filter too aggressive then more legitimate mail will be
trapped by the filter and deleted. Thus, we have to compromise
and soften the spam filter a little in order to avoid catching
as much legitimate mail as possible.
Even with a very aggressive filter, spam will still get through
because filters are just computer programs that can only make
educated guesses based on prior knowledge. We are constantly
updating our filter to trap new versions of spam. Unfortunately,
the spammers are constantly changing their methods to get around
spam filters. Therefore, you may notice a sudden increase of a
certain type of spam and then over time a decrease as the filter
is adjusted.
I received pornographic spam! Shouldn't the spam
filter block pornography?
The spam filter does not specifically look for pornographic spam
nor does it know what pornography is. The spam filter can only
look for patterns which are typical of spam in general. Some of
these patterns will include words and phrases typically found in
pornographic messages. If enough spam patterns are found then the
message will either be tagged as spam or deleted by the filter
(for further information on how the spam filter works, please see
How does the spam filter work?).
Fortunately, most pornographic spam have enough spam
characteristics that they will be caught by the filter. Please
note that the filter cannot block spam based on the type of
pictures/images in the message.
I received a message tagged as spam but it is not
spam! How can I stop this from happening again?
The spam report included with the message will give you an
indication as to why the message was tagged as spam. The best way
to solve this problem is to have the sender make the necessary
adjustments so that the filter does not tag their messages as spam
(chances are that if our filter is tagging their messages as spam,
so will others). If the messages are from a mailing list and the
list messages are consistently being tagged as spam then we may be
able to adjust the filter for the mailing list.
Some common reasons why legitimate mail is tagged as spam:
I'm not receiving some of my email. Is the spam
filter blocking my mail?
There are several reasons why you may not be receiving email. Please
run through the checklist below:
Never reply to spam or click on any link in a spam that claims to
remove you from their mailing list. Often, doing this will just
verify that your email address is active and will get your address
added to even more spam mailing lists.
Who do I complain to about spam?
The appropriate place to send spam complaints is to the host
system from where the spam originated. When an email is sent, it
passes through several mail servers on the way to its intended
recipient. The first mail server it passes through is the
originating mail server. It is to the owners of the originating
mail server where spam complaints should be sent.
There are several sites that help make spam reporting easier. One
of the more popular sites is
spamcop.net. If you would rather send your complaints directly,
we will have instructions posted in the coming weeks.
How did spammers get my email address?
There are a variety of ways that spammers can get your email
address, including:
I received spam that isn't even addressed to me.
How is that possible?
Just as return addresses are easy to forge, so are To: (recipient)
addresses. This is due to a weakness in the protocol (SMTP) used
to deliver email over the Internet. Thus, even though your email
address may not show in the To: field, you can be assured that if
the message is in your mailbox it was sent directly to you. Until
someone develops a secure way to send email, you really cannot
trust the To: and From: addresses in any email you receive.
How does the spam filter work?
Each message coming into our mail server is sent through the spam
filter. The spam filter runs a variety of tests on the message
and assigns the message a spam score depending on the outcome of
the tests. If the spam score is high then the filter immediately
discards the message and it is never delivered to anyone on our
sytem. If the spam score is borderline (it may or may not be
spam) then the message is delivered but it is also tagged as spam.
If the spam score is low then the message is delivered without
modification.
Some of the tests include:
How much spam does the filter trap?
Currently the spam filter is discarding between 85-90% of the
email entering our system. In other words, 85-90% of the email
sent to customers on our sytem is being deleted by the spam filter
before it ever reaches their mailbox. This does not include the
tagged spam that makes it through the filter.
Will email I send be trapped by the spam filter
or tagged as spam?
No. The spam filter will not check email sent from our customers
while dialed into one of our sites.
If you need help figuring out why a message was tagged as spam,
please forward the message to Online Services Support.
It is important to note that none of these tests are perfect. The
spam filter will let some spam through and accidentally mark some
legitate email as spam (or even discard it completely). The spam
filter can only make an educated guess as to whether a message is
spam or not and computers are just not as accurate (at least not
yet) as a pair of human eyes.