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--- IMPORTANT SPAM NEWS ---
Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007
As part of the new "anti-Spam"
laws, iGRIN has made some changes to our Terms & Conditions, and
have provided some links to help inform our customers about what
the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 means for them and
their e-mail service.
iGRIN's
updated Terms & Conditions
Your rights as a New Zealand Internet
user
Procedures for complaining about
unsolicited e-mails
How the iGRIN spam filtering service
works
Read the
Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007
Read the ISP Spam Code of Practice 2007
IGRIN are proud to announce an
all new user customisable Spam Filter system
Most people who use email are probably familiar with "Spam"
(junk mail) which can fill up your mailbox with useless, quite
often offensive material. World-wide it is currently estimated
that in excess of 40% of all email that traverses the internet
is now Spam, making some kind of filtering system almost
essential to be able to use email effectively. The amount of
Spam is expected to double in the next 12 to 18 months.
IGRIN's Spam Filter is based on
SpamAssassin,
and has been activated for all IGRIN customers, however the
default action taken on messages that the filter determines are
Spam is simply to add **SPAM RATING xx** to the message subject
and pass it through. xx is a number which is higher the more
likely the message is Spam. This will allow you to get an idea
of how effective the filter is for your kind of mail without
actually blocking messages.
To get the full benefit of the Spam Filter and use it to block
messages, it is necessary to "opt-in", which is free, and is
done by logging into the new Webmail page at
http://webmail.igrin.co.nz/ - to do so you will need
to know your email login and password.
After logging in and clicking on the "Spam Filter" link you can
enable the "Quarantine Spam" feature which will divert incoming
Spam to the Spam folder of the webmail page to save you
downloading it to your email program. Until you are comfortable
with how accurate the Spam Filter is with your kind of mail, you
might want to check the contents of the Spam Folder from time to
time and/or adjust your threshold setting.
If you have any questions not answered below, please feel free
to email
techsupport@igrin.co.nz
Common questions
and answers
Q1:
What is Spam ?
Q2: Do I need to enable Spam Filtering if I don't get any Spam ?
Q3:
If I use the Spam Filter, do I have to use the Webmail page for
my email
now instead of my normal email program?
Q4:
I get all kinds of junk, how did they get hold of my email
address ?
Q5:
Why don't IGRIN just enable the "Quarantine Spam" option for
everyone by
default ?
Q6: What does the Spam Threshold setting do, and what is the
"SPAM RATING" mentioned in message subjects?
Q7:
Is there any way to see what the score of a non-Spam message is
and/or
see the Spam report ?
Q8:
Occasional Spam still slips through, is there anything I can do
?
Q9:
Occasional legitimate messages are being blocked as Spam, is
there
anything I can do ?
Q10:
A message that I need to download was quarantined in the Webmail
Spam
folder, is there any way to download it to my email program ?
Q1: What is Spam ?
A: Spam is also known as "junk mail" or "unsolicited commercial
email", it includes messages such as "make money" schemes and
other scams, unwanted adult material, unsolicited advertising of
products, and so on...
Q2: Do I need to enable
Spam Filtering if I don't get any Spam ?
A: No, if you don't get any Spam now, there is no
need for you to enable the Quarantine setting. But at some time
in the future you may start getting Spam, at which time the
Filter will be available for you to activate.
Q3: If I use the Spam
Filter, do I have to use the Webmail page for my email now
instead of my normal email program ?
A: No, not at all. If you use an email program now,
such as Outlook Express, you continue to use it as normal. The
only time you need to log into the Webmail page is if you want
to change your Spam Filter settings, or check the "Spam Folder"
to see what messages have been Quarantined.
Q4: I get all kinds of junk,
how did they get hold of my email address ?
A: A question that is often impossible to answer as the methods
are too numerous, but some of the more common ways your email
address can be found by spammers are:
-
Having your
email address listed on a website.
-
Posting to
usenet (news groups) using your real email address.
-
"Brute force
attack" or "Dictionary attack" - the spammer tries repeatedly
to send messages to domains using variations on dictionary
words and names until they find addresses that are valid.
Those valid addresses are then recorded. Having a very simple
email address based on your name or a common word is much more
likely to be found like this than a more obscure address.
-
Filling in
your email address on websites that "require" your email
address to allow you to join some service or download some
product - sometimes they will sell your address on to 3rd
parties. Always read the fine print when filling in your email
address somewhere, or use a disposable address such as a
hotmail address for that
purpose.
Once your email address has been
discovered by Spammers, it is likely to continue receiving Spam.
Q5: Why don't IGRIN just
enable the "Quarantine Spam" option for everyone by default ?
A: As much as we'd like to, the reality is that no Spam Filter
is (or ever could be) perfect and never make mistakes. Two kinds
of mistakes are possible - a false negative,
which means that Spam got through and didn't get detected, or a
false positive which means that a legitimate
message got detected as Spam. For most people, a false positive
is much more serious than a false negative. If Quarantine Spam
was on by default, people that weren't aware of the Spam Filter
could potentially miss an important message that got blocked as
Spam. By opting in, you are aware of the Spam Filter and are in
a position to control its behaviour.
Q6: What does the Spam
Threshold setting do, and what is the "SPAM RATING" mentioned in
message subjects ?
A: The way SpamAssassin works is to look for hundreds of
different tell tale signs of Spam in a message, and assign
points for those it finds. The more different indications of
Spam contained in the message, the higher the score it receives.
This means that a message will not be marked as Spam from just
one test, it requires corroboration of a number of different
tests. Setting your Threshold lower is more
sensitive at detecting Spam, while setting it higher is
less sensitive.
Q7: Is there any way to see
what the score of a non-Spam message is and/or see the Spam
report ?
A: Yes, if the message in question is on the Webmail page,
simply view the message, and click the "View Full Header" link
to see the Spam report and the score it received. The score and
your threshold are shown in X-Spam-Status, and the report is in
X-Spam-Report. To view the same information in Outlook or
Outlook Express, right click on the message and choose
properties, click details, and optionally click Message Source.
Many other email programs such as Eudora will show the score and
report without doing anything extra.
Q8: Occasional Spam still
slips through, is there anything I can do ?
A: Maybe. If you follow the steps in Q7 you can find out what
score the message received. If it was above 5.0 but below your
threshold, you could set your Spam Threshold lower, right down
to the minimum of 5.0 if necessary. However this will increase
the chance that a legitimate message might be detected as Spam.
If not missing any legitimate messages is more important to you
than the occasional Spam slipping through, we suggest you don't
lower your threshold, or even raise it slightly. If the messages
that are slipping through are always from the same addresses,
you could use the Email Address Blacklist facility to block
those particular email addresses.
Q9: Occasional legitimate
messages are being blocked as Spam, is there anything I can do ?
A: Yes. If the messages that get blocked are always from the
same addresses (for example a newsletter or mailing list) then
you can enter those addresses in the Email Address Whitelist,
and they should no longer be blocked. If it is just occasional
messages from different sources, you should probably consider
raising your Spam Threshold setting. If receiving email from
specific email addresses is extremely important to you (for
example business related) you might consider pre-emptively
listing them in your Whitelist, or setting your Threshold a bit
higher, and/or checking your Spam Folder contents from time to
time.
Q10: A
message that I need to download was quarantined in the Webmail
Spam folder, is there any way to download it to my email program
?
A: Yes, if you log into the Webmail page, click on the Spam
folder, then select the message or messages in question, (click
the tick box to the left of the "From" address for the message)
choose INBOX in the dropdown box below "Move Selected To:", then
click the Move button. This will transfer the message back to
your INBOX, and you can now return to your normal email program
and download it. |
