Earlier in the year; I wrote an article about Email SPAM which gave a rough idea on blocking most Junk mails that our clients receive in their FatServers Hosting account.
Our clients wanted more control of managing SPAM since I last wrote the previous article (cPanel to Manage e-mail and Stop SPAM); so today I decided to follow-up on that request by listing the overall features and prevention methods for junk emails in our ongoing battle against SPAM.
The items below only applies if you are an FatServers client with the cPanel web hosting package.
MAKE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS INVISIBLE:
If you have your Email address posted on your web site, Internet spammers can crawl your site and copy your Email address into their system.
BOX TRAPPER:
There is a feature called Box Trapper that comes with FatServers Web Hosting. When Box Trapper is activated, anyone sending an Email to your Email address would get a reply Email asking them to click a link and verify they are a real person. Once they click that link they get put on your White List and you receive their Email, and all future Emails from them. Because spammers are automated systems & don’t reply to Emails, they are never added to your White List.
TURN ON SPAMASSASSIN:
SpamAssassin is widely used which will allow you to filter your Email and remove spam before you check your email.
HOW: From the home page of your Control Panel, click the “SpamAssassin” icon. Then click the “Enable” button next to SpamAssassin. Once SpamAssassin is turned on, you can tighten the default settings. The average Score setting is 5. You can reduce this to 4 or 3. This number represents how many tests an Email fails before it is considered spam. If you are concerned that reducing the Score will delete legitimate Email, you can enable “Spam Box” from this same page. This will direct all spam into a separate folder in your Webmail system. You can occasionally visits that folder to see if any legitimate Email is there.
BLACKLIST DOMAINS OR EMAIL ADDRESSES:
Blacklisting domains or individual Email accounts will prevent spam Email from getting into any Email account at your domain. Here is a tip. If you are getting spam Email that indicates it is From your Email account and To your Email account, you can blacklist your own Email address to prevent the spammers from sending this type of Email spam to you.
SET YOUR DOMAIN SPAM FILTER FOR 'Words or Phrases':
Any filters (words or phrases) that you create in this area will effect all Email accounts for your domain. If you see Words in your spam Email that clearly identify them as spam, you can put these words in your Spam Filter. For example if I put the word “Viagra” in my spam filter, all future Emails with the word “Viagra” will be automatically deleted, redirected to another Email account or moved to a spam folder. You get to choose the action for each word you put in your Spam Filter.
HOW: In your Control Panel, click the “Account Level Filtering” icon. Then click the “Create a new Filter” button
SET YOUR PERSONAL EMAIL SPAM FILTER FOR 'Words or Phrases':
Similar with the Domain SPAM filter; this will affect only your individual Email account as opposed to all email accounts.
HOW: In your Control Panel, click the “User Level Filtering” icon. Then click the “Manage Filters” text next to the Email account you want to apply filters.
ENABLE DOMAIN KEYS
Domain Keys is an e-mail authentication system that allows for incoming mail to be checked against the server that it was sent from to verify that the mail has not been modified. This ensures that messages are actually coming from the listed sender and allows abusive messages to be tracked with more ease.
HOW: From the home page of your Control Panel, click the “Email Authentication” icon. Then click the “Enable” button next to DomainKeys.
ENABLE SPF AUTHENTICATION:
SPF will specify which Email Servers are authorized to send email from your domain(s). This means that only mail sent through your Email server will appear as valid mail from your domain(s) when the SPF records are checked. This prevents what is known as “Spoofing”, where spam Email appears to be coming from your domain but it isn't.
HOW: From the home page of your Control Panel, click the “Email Authentication” icon. Then click the “Enable” button next to SPF.
SET YOUR LOCAL SPAM FILTER:
If you are using an antivirus / antispam program on your local computer, most of them have spam filters that work with your local Email application such Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. Check with your IT support or vendor to see how to filter out spam locally.
SPAM PROTECTION FROM EMAIL IMAGES:
The most difficult type of spam to prevent is where an email that has an image in the body of the Email. When that image becomes visible it is reporting back to the spammer that your Email address is valid. After validation you can be sure more spam is on the way.
HOW: To prevent this type of image validation, many Email program have a feature where you are not able to view images in your Email unless you identify that Email / many Email Address as a Friend. Microsoft Outlook 2007 and onwards do offer this feature.
CANNOT STOP ALL SPAM:
Unless you use the Box Trapper feature as described above, it is impossible to prevent all spam from coming into your Email account.
Sadly, it’s part of our new online culture.