Fighting Spam..

Industry experts estimate that three out of every five e-mail messages that are sent today are spam.

This is not only a nuisance; it is costing us all time and money which could be better spent on productive ventures.

Bizwala is committed to fighting spam & blocks a great deal without customer intervention. Our systems are updated daily and we are always working to improve our spam filtering.

Though we may never be able to block it all, we can offer some suggestions to combat spam effectively.

Q: How can I prevent spam from reaching my e-mail account?

A: People who send spam compile their mailing lists in many ways. Methods to compile such lists include:

Sending spam to e-mail addresses that are most commonly used. A common tactic consists of building lists of targeted addresses that use frequently used words such as "webmaster" or "info" (for example, "webmaster@mydomainname" or "info@mydomainname").

Obtaining e-mail addresses that are automatically "harvested" from web sites by specialized software.

Compiling lists of e-mail addresses that are either chosen or generate at random (for example, " joe1@mydomainname", "joe2@mydomainname" or "joe3@mydomainname". This method is becoming increasingly frequent.

Because spammers often send spam to undefined e-mail aliases such as aabbcc@domain.com, ccddee@domain.com, mfrds@domain.com, you can combat the receipt of spam effectively by not using a catch-all address . (The catch-all is an alias that is used to recieve mail sent to undefined addresses/aliases .)

Q: What is spoofing and how can I fight it?

A: "Spoofing" occurs when a spammer uses some version of your domain name in the "From" address field. Spammers use spoofing to try to hide their identities and to pass blame for spam to innocent Internet users. The large amount of spam messages -- many of which are sent to invalid address -- result in a significant amount of "bounced" e-mail (that is, mail that returned as being undeliverable). Unfortunately, bounced mail is sent back to the address found in the "From" line of the spammed message. Typically, the "From" line is also an undefined e-mail address not found in your mail settings. To combat receiving bounced mail messages, you can use the "devnull" alias that we mentioned in the previous question and answer.

Q: Even if my account is not generating any spam, can the mail server I use get blocked because of spam?

Unfortunately, yes. The main cause for blacklisting your mail server depends on where the spammed e-mail is ultimately received and how the ISP who maintains that location reacts to spam and to spam complaints. Many account holders with Bizwala forward e-mail messages that are sent to there hosting account. For example, a message sent to info@mydomainname could be forwarded to myaccount@aol.com or myaccount@yahoo.com. At other times, clients may be forwarding e-mail messages to accounts that are invalid or otherwise not in use. The processing of the forwarded e-mail message is handled by the mail server that your account uses (specifically, the MTA or Mail Transport Agent). Because a Bizwala mail server is the MTA, it is possible that the mail server could be blacklisted even though you (or any other Bizwala client) is not responsible for sending the spam in the first place.

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