LOST EMAIL AND SPAM FILTER PROBLEMS
What is Spam | Glossary of spam terms | Sending people emails with ALL CAPS in the Subject |
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Your email may be considered to be going missing when
a) It doesnt get to where its going
b) It doesnt arrive in your mail
.. either way, you may not even know this is happening unless the sender or recipient tells you that they didnt get an expected email. It is therefore ESSENTIAL you minimise the risk of this happining to you.
Its a good idea to add people you know to a safe list. Some mail programmes do this to everyone on your address book, but you may have to put a tick in a box somewhere to trigger this behaviour.
Adding names to the safe list on common Anti-Spam Programmes :-
Settings the spam filter on NORTON ANTI-SPAM
Settings the spam filter on MCAFEE SPAM KILLER
Settings the spam filter on HOTMAIL
Settings the spam filter on MSN
Settings the spam filter on YAHOO
Settings the spam filter on GMAIL
Settings the spam filter on AOL
Settings the spam filter on Outlook 2003
DEALING WITH SPAM FILTERS : WHITE LISTS AND SAFE LISTS
If you are told that you have been sent an email and it has not arrived; its possible that your email is working correctly and that a SPAM FILTER has diverted the email to the Junk , Spam or Bulk Email folder. This is the result of security applications known as SPAM FILTERS.
You should note that its current practice by the leading retails of Security Products top label them as Security Suites rather than Anti-Virus and Spam Filter applications. The result is that you may not even know that your own computer is deleting your email.
One good method of avoiding Spam Filter accidental deletions is to routinely add any new contact or friend’s email address to your Address Book. The reason being that most commercial spam filters use the address book as a source of GOOD email addresses that you want to allow email from.
GLOSSARY OF SPAM TERMS
Safe List : The people you WANT to receive email from, irrespective of content. AKA White List
White List : The people you WANT to receive email from, irrespective of content AKA Safe List
Black List : Known Spam addresses that you DON’T WANT to receive email from for whatever reason. Be careful and note that spammers use REAL email addresses to mask their activities such as well known banks and Ebay etc. These are called SPOOF email addresses and the process is known as SPOOFING. Blacklisting Spoofed email addresses such as a bank, will prevent you from receiving email from the genuine bank in the future. SO if you use a well known bank, be sure you DO want to blacklist them. Many people tolerate spam from certain (spoofed) sources because they need to receive email from the REAL email addresses.
Spoof or Spoofed email addresses: An email address need not be genuine and in fact it is common practice for spammers and fraudsters to PRETEND to be someone when they are not this is called SPOOFING. An example would be an email coming from a well known bank asking you to log into your account and change the password. The email in fact will have come from a fraudster who, with special software, has created an email that looks genuine and says it comes from a well known bank address.
Spam Score: Anti Spam software scores emails using a set of rules that generally indicate spam email. The higher the score, the more likely the mail is spam. Each brand of software will have different methods of doing this, usually hidden to the user, but it means that genuine emails that do not conform to the spam rules will get BLACKLISTED or simply put in the trash or spam folder. Typical rules will be using more than Three BLCOK CAPITALISED WORDS in the subject of your email or not putting any subject in the title….
You set the SEVERITY of your spam filter by raising or lowering the spam score. A HIGH spam score lets most email through but blocks obvious spam. A LOW one will block most spam but will also block friends with any pictures embedded in their emails.
Junk Mail: Is just SPAM mail or unsolicited mails – mail you don’t want or did not request.
Junk Folder: This is where your ANTI-SPAM software will place junk or spam mails. aka SPAM FOLDER. The advantage of this is that you can find emails accidentally placed here e.g. email from friends inadvertently added to the spam. You should retrieve the mail and MARK IT AS SAFE.
Spam: Unsolicited email aka Junk Mail
Spam Folder: This is where ANTI-SPAM software will place junk or spam mails. aka JUNK FOLDER. The advantage of this is that you can find emails accidentally placed here e.g. email from friends inadvertently added to the spam. You should retrieve the mail and MARK IT AS SAFE.
Norton AntiSpam
AntiSpam works along with Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape and Yahoo (POP3), MSN/Hotmail to block UCE unsolicited commercial e-mail before it arrives in your inbox. To make sure our e-mails pass through you need to add us to your Personal Friends list, or Global Friends List. Here's how:
Start up Norton AntiSpam, Click the Status & Settings tab
Click the Norton AntiSpam button or link.
Click the Configure Button.
Click the Allowed List tab.
Click the Add button.
In the Address box, enter sales@calcouk.com.
Click the OK button.
McAfee Spam Killer
Spam Killer works along with Outlook, Outlook Express, Outlook 98, MSN/Hotmail, and POP3 accounts to block unsolicited commercial e-mail before it arrives in your inbox. To make sure your Calco e-mail passes through you need to add us to your Personal Friends list, or Global Friends List.
Click the Messages tab, and then click the Blocked E-mail or Accepted E-mail tab. Or, from the SpamKiller menu in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, select View Blocked Messages to open the Blocked E-mail page for that account. The Blocked E-mail or Accepted E-mail page appears.
Click Add a Friend.
In the Address box, type sales@calcouk.com to add it to the Friends List.
Type Calco UK in the Name box.
Select single email address from the Friend type box.
Click OK.
Hotmail
Click Options and select More Options from the drop down menu.
Click Junk E-Mail Protection.
Click Safe Senders.
Type in sales@calcouk.com, and then click Add.
MSN
(new version)
Click on Settings: E-mail | Junk e-mail.
On the E-mail settings screen, click Junk E-Mail Guard.
Select Safe List.
In the space provided under "Add people to the safe list", enter the address sales@calcouk.com
Click Add.
Earlier Versions of MSN
Click on E-mail settings.
On the E-mail settings screen, click Junk Mail.
Select Safe List.
Click Add an item to this list.
When the Add To Safe List box appears, enter the address sales@calcouk.com
Click Add.
Yahoo
Open your Yahoo email inbox.
Click on Options (top right of screen) then select Mail Options from the drop down menu.
Click on Filters.
Click the Add button.
in filter name box, type Calco UK
In the top row, labelled 'From header:', make sure contains is selected in the drop-down menu.
Click in the text box next to that pull-down menu and type in sales@calcouk.com
Where it says Then ... Move the message to:', select Inbox from the pull-down menu.
Click the Add Filter button.
AOL
Click on the Settings Menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen.
Along the left side of the screen, click Spam controls
Choosing Allow mail from all senders will disable your Spam filters entirely. This will ensure that all mail from everyone, including Calco UK, will get to your inbox. If you choose this option, you can stop here. If you would like to leave the filtering on, but specify particular senders who are to be considered "not spam", continue to the next step.
Click on the drop down menu next to Spam Filters by Address and select Custom if you would like to specifically ensure that emails from Calco UK get to your inbox.
Click the Allow Mail from radio button, type sales@calcouk.com in the box and click the + sign.
Gmail
The best way to prevent messages from being filtered as SPAM is to add sales@calcouk.com to your address book.
Click on Contacts along the left side of the screen.
Click Add contact, located in the top right corner of the Contacts window
Type Calco UK for the name, and sales@calcouk.com for the primary email. You can leave the rest of the fields blank.
Click Save.
Outlook 2003
The best way to prevent messages from being filtered as SPAM is to add sales@calcouk.com to your address book. (by default Outlook is set to allow people in your Addresss Book unblocked rights to send you email without being filtered. You can change this if required.
Outllok has its own JUNK EMAIL folder and its own system of deciding whether an item is junk mail. Typically when an item is placed in the Junk Email folder, a dialogue box called Junk Mail Options will pop up asking you what to do about junk mail. You can also get to this window by clicking: Tools the Options then on the Preferences tab click the Junk Mail Button. It is here that you can alter Outloook's built in Spam settings. To allow sales@calcouk.com as a safe sender, click the SAFE SENDERS tab and then click the ADD... button and enter sales@calcouk.com and click OK. Click OK again on the Options window.
NOTE: A handy and quick way of adding accidental junk mail (or false positives) to your safe sender list is to go to the JUNK MAIL FOLDER - cick ONCE the message you want to mark as safe, to highlight it. Then RIGHT CLICK the message and choose (with the normal mouse button) choose :- Junk Mail then click Add to Safe Senders List.
There are many other settings in the Junk Mail window (dialogue box) the most important of which is the Junk Mail OPTIONS tab where you set the SEVERITY of your Junk Mail (Spam) filter. Its your decision what this should be. Read the instructions (in the help file) carefully BEFORE deciding.
You can UPDATE Outlook 2003's features including the Junk Mail Filter by clicking on HELP then CHECK FOR UPDATES. Simply follow the weblinks to the product or features you require to update.
MISSING EMAIL OR LOST EMAIL
Most email is transported flawlessly across the network by internet companies or ISPs. If it doesnt get to where its meant to be going because a server fails then the mail is considered LOST. This is obviously a very rare occurrence as servers, especially mail servers don't tend to crash all the time, contrary to what you may have heard
On the other hand.. if an email is lost because of spam filters, virus filters and other gatekeeper software then this is MISSING EMAIL which is frighteningly common.
A lot can be learned from any error message you get back when you send and email:-
Blah blah blah ... MAILBOX FULL
Blah blah blah ... MAILBOX DOESNT EXIST
Blah blah blah ... MAIL REJECTED (as spam)
... as you can see most messages are self-explanatory once you rid the message of the error codes and verbage.
HOW TO CHECK IF YOU ARE ON A SPAM BLACKLIST .. and how get off it!