WebBand offers free spam protected e-mail accounts to our connection owners.
What is spam?
Spam is unsolicited e-mail (or news postings) pushing a point. Be it an ad for a used PC, or an urge to vote on a proposition; if you didn’t ask for it, didn’t sign up on a mailing list related to it, and didn’t leave your e-mail address on a web form asking for more information on it, it’s spam!
How do spammers get my e-mail address?
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly how people who send unsolicited email collect addresses because there are so many techniques. Popular methods include: Culling addresses from chat rooms, from Usenet postings, insecure email lists, and “mailto” links on Web pages. Many companies and individuals who spam use “Web crawlers,” or automated programs that look through various kinds of Web traffic to harvest email addresses.
What can I do to respond to spam?
In the case of bulk or unsolicited commercial email it may be a bad idea to respond to the email at all. Asking to be removed from a list lets the spammer know your email address is a legitimate one and may, in fact, add you to a database.
It is inadvisable to even open an offending email. Spammers can set up their email to notify them that a particular email was opened by its addressee. This way a spammer knows that your email address is legitimate and that the subject heading made you curious enough to look.
The best solution for combating spam still remains: Delete the mail immediately!
Can I customize my spam protection?
Yes! You will receive an e-mail reporting the spam messages you received. From this message, you can block or unblock certain addresses and have messages delivered and reclassified so you get them directly next time.
At the bottom of the message is a link to view your quarantine online. Once you are logged into your account, the settings can be adjusted by selecting PREFERENCES and then SPAM SETTINGS. Under SPAM SCORING, you’ll notice the following options (to change them, you’ll have to say “No” to using the system defaults):
- Tag: Messages with a score above this threshold, but below the quarantine threshold, are delivered to you with the word [BULK] added to the subject line. Any message with a score below this setting is automatically allowed. The default value is 10 (off).
- Quarantine: Messages with a score above this threshold, but below the block threshold, are forwarded to your quarantine mailbox. The default setting is 10 (quarantine disabled), but we usually set it to 2. To enable the quarantine feature, this setting must have a value lower than the block threshold.
- Block: Messages with a score above this threshold are not delivered to your inbox. Depending on how the system is configured, the Barracuda Spam Firewall may notify you and the sender that a blocked message could not be delivered. The default value is 6.
Make sure to click “Save Changes” before moving away from this page. It is WebBand’s recommendation that you DO NOT change the default settings because you risk either having all your mail to to quarantine or all your mail blocked (you’ll receive nothing).
Why do I go through periods where I get more spam?
The technology of spam protection is “reactive”. The filter cannot react to a new spam technique until it is spread through the system. Our filter will learn as it finds new spam. But this also means that there will be times when spam seems heavier. Please be patient and let our technology learn. Simply delete the messages and give it a week.
