Beyond The Net
Spam-blockers often fight the wrong messages
Why these programs may be blocking messages you want
JANINE WARNER
Your spam-blocker may be deleting more than junk mail.
If you've e-mailed someone recently and not received a reply, don't take it personally. The latest casualties in the war on spam may be messages you want that are being misidentified and deleted by your server's spam-blocker.
In the last month alone, I've missed at least a dozen e-mail messages. I know this because a couple of friends called to ask why I was being so rude. After I swore on my laptop's life that I wasn't trying to avoid them, I set out to discover why their e-mail messages never made it to my in-box.
Along the way, I found multiple reasons for these missing missives, and I discovered a few things you might also want to do to improve your chances of receiving the e-mail you want, while still limiting the way spammers infiltrate your in-box.
My biggest problem was that the service provider I was using had an exceptionally strict ''blacklist'' -- a collection of domain names they've identified as spammers and that they prevent from entering their e-mail system at all.
Now I understand that spam is a huge problem and that it can cost service providers millions of dollars a year, but I was horrified when I learned my ISP was deleting some of my e-mail without even alerting me.
My ISP claimed it's common practice and that they only block messages from ''known spammers,'' but let me give you a flavor of some of the offenders they blacklisted.
NO REASON GIVEN
One message that never got through was from a friend who works at the ACLU. When I questioned my service provider, they confirmed that ACLU.org was on their blacklist, but they couldn't tell me what the organization had done wrong.
Many blacklists are created by individuals or organizations that have volunteered to be watchdogs in the war against spam, said Richard Hoy, owner of Writersweeklycom. Domains that send large volumes of e-mail are the most likely to get blocked, he added, noting that anyone who sends out an e-mail newsletter has a good chance of ending up on a blacklist.
'The problem with blacklists is that there is no oversight and there is no way for us to go to them and say, `The IP address that we're sending from is on your list, but our newsletter is legitimate,' '' said Hoy.
Hoy was blacklisted by my provider because the newsletter service that he used to send out his weekly reports had been accused of serving spammers. In his case, it was guilt by association.
PROACTIVE APPROACH
Many service providers and large corporations also use a white list where you can specify good e-mail addresses. Adding your friends to that list may help ensure you get the mail you most want to receive, but it still won't solve all your problems if your service provider is as strict as mine was.
''Any service that blocks your e-mail outside your personal system can be risky because you don't have any control,'' said Steve Mickle, public relations manager for Cloudmark, a spam-blocking program that works on your computer.
I like Cloudmark's spam blocker because it saves all my ''spam'' in a special folder where I can double check that messages haven't been misidentified. Cloudmark also makes it easy for me to unblock anyone I want back in my in-box.
HIDDEN FOLDERS
Many systems use a spam folder to hold messages that may be misidentified, but I didn't realize until recently that my service provider had a spam folder associated with my account. Once I learned that I had to use a browser, not my e-mail program, to access this folder on their server, I found several other missing messages, including a few from my real estate broker.
''Most people would rather get spam than miss important messages,'' said Michael Osterman, founder and president of Osterman Research, a market-research and consulting firm that focuses on e-mail. Osterman said he's optimistic that spam blockers will become more accurate in the future, but agreed that lost e-mail has become a serious problem.
BACKUP ACCOUNT HELPS
If you use a commercial service provider, you have the option of moving to one that's not so strict; but if you're concerned that your company's mail server is blocking messages with a blacklist (and most do), consider using a Yahoo! account as a backup.
Yahoo! is especially permissive about spammers at the server level and, for a fee, provides controls for the end user to limit spam in their own in-box. I still prefer Outlook or Eudora for managing e-mail, but I know several people at big corporations that have changed over to Yahoo! for all their e-mail.
I'm still trying to get over the irony that a personal message from someone at the ACLU, an organization dedicated to protecting civil liberties, was blocked by my service provider's overzealous efforts to stop illegal spam.
I hate spam and I want it stopped, but I'm even more concerned about e-mail newsletters and organizations like the ACLU getting blacklisted.
Ultimately, my solution was to find a service provider that isn't so strict about spam and to use Cloudmark to limit spam on my own system. I'm in the process of moving my e-mail address and domain over to the new system now.
But if you're not sure your messages are getting through to your friends, please, pick up the phone and call.
