Are you receiving too much spam in your inbox? Here's a quick guide to understanding and tackling the problem.
Spammers Lie
Rule #1 when considering spam is: "Spammers lie". When you've received some spam, do not believe any of it. Don't believe who it says it came from, who it says it's going to, or what it's about. Certainly don't believe that your life will be improved, if only you'd hand over some of your hard-earned cash to ... well, to someone you've never met, you don't know, and basically you don't know a single thing about.
There's only a very tiny amount of information in a spam email which can be trusted, and the chances are your email client isn't showing you it - it's only showing you the spammer's lies. See the the Email Tracking page for a rather technical explanation of which parts can, and cannot, be trusted.
Where is your spam going?
Different people's spam fits different profiles, therefore different types of solutions are required. One of the first questions to address is:
- What email address did the spammers send to, which caused it to reach my inbox?
For example, if you're using a Powernet POP3 mailbox then by default there are several email addresses which get to your inbox. Additionally, you might have mail mappings set up which say (for example) "all mail for example.com goes into my POP3 mailbox". So the spammer might be reaching you on any of the following addresses:
Remembering rule #1 ("Spammers lie"), and if you've read the the Email Tracking page, you'll know that one thing which won't give you the answer is the "To" or "Cc" headers. The information (usually) lies in the full headers of the email. Alternatively, contact support and we'll find the answer for you.
Blocking unused mappings
Although it can be useful having such a range of email addresses to choose from, the downside is that it does tend to mean that you receive more spam. If the address at which the spammer is reaching you is never one you use for any legitimate mail, the simplest thing to do is to reject all mail sent to that address. The method depends on which addresses you want to block:
If you don't use any of the example@powernet.com / example@powernet.co.uk / example@luvme.com / example@hateme.com addresses, call us and tell us that you want those addresses blocked (we can block all of them, or none of them - sorry, no picking and choosing for this one).
If you don't use any of the anythingyouwant@example.powernet.co.uk addresses, call us and tell us you want the entire "example.powernet.co.uk" domain blocked. Or, if you use a specific, small set of addresses in that domain, tell us exactly which ones you want left unblocked, and we'll block the rest.
If you only want a small number of specific addresses in your "example.com" domain to get through to you (for example, if you only want "alex", "bob", "catherine", "sales" and "info" to get through), then call us and let us know, telling us exactly which addresses you want to allow in; we can allow those in, and block the rest.
In fact if you're using AVG and you want to specify which addresses in your domain are, or are not, allowed through, then you can make the change yourself if you wish: look for the "Edit valid addresses" link. Or, get in touch with us and we'll do it for you.
What else?
Once the unused mappings to your mailbox have been removed, it's probably best to wait a few days and see what difference it makes. Hopefully, all of the spam was being sent to addresses which you never used for legitimate mail, and now that they're blocked you don't receive any more spam.
If you're still receiving spam on your remaining, legitimate addresses, then after that it becomes rather harder. By then it's the job of a spam filter, as opposed to simple mail mappings, and unfortunately spam filtering is not an exact science, and is never 100% accurate.
To find out more about Powernet's virus and spam filter ("AVG"), contact us.