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NetDotCom Spam Filtering |
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NetDotCom has been filtering junk email (commonly called spam) for over two years. Before most people knew what spam was!
While e-mail marketing is utilized everyday by responsible companies worldwide; there are many more irresponsible e-mail marketers that steal resources, disregard stop requests,
irresponsibly gather e-mail addresses, mislead and even harass.
NetDotCom spam filtering is an automated system consisting of dedicated servers that go beyond simple e-mail filters. Everyday our system blocks the arrival of junk, unsolicited e-mail messages.
Junk e-mail generally consists of the following:
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Ads from vendors you never
requested info from (Note: Some vendors will share
email address with affiliates so read their privacy
info before giving them your email address)
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Ads for adult oriented web sites, products or services
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Scams that attempt to ascertain your credit card numbers.
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Help me letters (some government
official in Africa with millions of dollars)
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Pyramid, Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), "Get Rich Quick" and "Make Money Fast" scams
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Questionable investment advice or
stock tips
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Untested and possibly un-safe health products and remedies
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Illegal software ("Warez")
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Offers for services for sending junk e-mail
For more information on the reasons why we implemented spam filtering, please visit CAUCE: The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email |
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How does NetDotCom's spam filters work? |
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Reject mail from servers that are known sources of junk mail, using both internal and third party "spam source" databases
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Reject mail from servers that
incessantly attempt to send mail to invalid e-mail
addresses.
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Reject mail from servers operated by companies that do not respond to "unsubscribe"
requests.
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Reject mail from end-user computers that are connected to the Internet
using dial-up, cable, dsl and wireless connections.
Note: This will not block messages from people using
these type connections since their messages should
be first
sent to their local ISP's mail server which then delivers the e-mail here.Reject the message if the message header (delivery information) contains certain "flags" that are common to junk mail.
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Reject the message is it contains
executable file attachments such as: .exe, .scr, .pif, vxd.* Note: If you absolutely need to
send or receive an e-mail with a executable program as an attachment, rename the extension.
Only when an e-mail passes all of these checks is it accepted and sent to the second set of filters.
This second system also performs a series of test on each and every message. This system will
scan each email message, performing a series of tests (each with associated numerical values) to gauge the "spaminess" of the message. Each test that
fails is added to the total for the message.
If the sum value of all the tests performed reaches a certain
value, the word "SPAM" is inserted at the beginning of the subject line. This will alert you the recipient to the possibility that
the message is spam. This can happen to legitimate message for various reasons, such as certain words used in the message, the source of the message, the path the message took to get here, etc.
If a message fails even more test and reaches a second, higher
value, it is held by spam blocker for human review.
While spam filtering is not perfect and will not reject or tag every piece of spam (and spammers are constantly finding ways to bypass prevention measures), it has greatly reduced the amount of junk mail. And
because all this happens before the message ever gets to your mailbox it relieves you of having to waste time sorting, deleting and managing.
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Side effects of spam blocking |
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The unfortunate side-effect or spam blocking efforts: Legitimate messages can be rejected back to the sender or tagged as spam!
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Some rejections can be caused by simple mistakes like an incorrectly typed return e-mail addresses. Example: The senders e-mail address is JOHN@ABCD.COM But in their e-mail program
they typed JOHN@ABDCE.COM Because abcde.com may not exist as a valid email name our system could block or hold that message.
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Another reason for rejected e-mail is that the person you correspond with may happen to use an ISP that is "spam friendly" or perhaps does not keep their mail servers
updated, resulting in spammer abuse. If this is the case, it is very possible that their ISPs mail server is listed in one or more databases of known spam sources. Any message from
such a "black-listed" server would be rejected by our system. NetDotCom utilizes the services of many public spam databases (blacklists) that are operated and maintained by anti-spam
activists. In addition NetDotCom maintains a private blacklist of spam sources.
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A third reason a message might be rejected is if the subject or body of the message contained certain key words associated with junk mail or computer viruses. As an example,
millions of computer users saw the effects of the LOVEBUG computer virus. This virus sent itself in a message with the subject "ILOVEYOU" or "LOVELETTER". Obviously if an
message contained these exact words as the subject of the message, it most likely was the virus. A more recent example is the Snowwhite virus.
Note, if you have suddenly stopped receiving legitimate messages from people or mailing lists you have received mail from before, (while a NetDotCom subscriber), e-mail support@netdotcom.com
with as much information as possible, (dates, time, e-mail addresses involved, etc.) and we will promptly investigate whether spam blocker is preventing delivery.
IMPORTANT: Spam filters are not to be relied upon to protect your system or any other system from any computer virus, known or unknown. NetDotCom will not accept any responsibility
for any computer virus that enters or leaves our systems, or for any claims of damage caused by any computer viruses. Responsibility for anti-virus protection starts and ends with you and your computer
systems.
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Reporting troublesome e-mail to NetDotCom |
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In the event that you are receiving unwanted e-mail you can report it to NetDotCom for analysis and possible blocking.
Not all mail submitted for analysis will be automatically blocked due to the fact that what may be trash to you may be treasure to another subscriber. Indiscriminate blocking may
impede legitimate e-mail messages sent by responsible Internet marketers.
To report e-mail to NetDotCom we need the entire message including the header. The header contains the numerical addresses of the computers the mail was received from along with other
useful information. For information on displaying the message header please consult the online help for your email program. Usually available on the Help menu.
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Tips to reduce spam |
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Nothing is truly free. Use caution when signing up for promotions, give-aways or other online services. Many are scams that are used to gather email addresses
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Never reply to spam to unsubscribe your self from their lists. Particularly if the reply-to address is at a free e-mail service like: Yahoo, Excite, Hotmail, etc. This will
almost guarantee more spam!
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Report spam by using spam tracking tools like www.samspade.org or www.spamcop.net to determine the
actual source of the spam.
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Use caution when giving out your e-mail address. Un-reputable web site operators may sell your e-mail address to anyone willing to pay for it. Carefully read their privacy
policy.
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Maintain multiple e-mail accounts; one for trusted friends, associates and businesses and another e-mail account for for un-trusted contacts like when sending requests for
info, entering contests, etc.
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Use mail processing rules features built into most modern e-mail programs to delete spam before it gets to your inbox.
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Boycott vendors who spam and hit them where it hurts, IN THE BANK ACCOUNT. If they know their methods will cause a loss of business they might change their methods.
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