Spam Email

Once the floodgates to spam are opened, it is very difficult to close the gate. However, there are a few tips and tricks that you can use to reduce the spam enough that it is no longer taking over your inbox.

Train your filter

While we do offer spam protection for our hosting email customers, and subscribe to a number of blacklists which block spam, it is difficult to prevent all spam email. Especially without causing legitimate email from being delivered.

When spam enters your inbox, don't immediately delete it. Select it. Tell your mail client that this message is spam. How you do this depends on your client. For instance, if you’re using our Webmail client, click the Junk button in the toolbar (the icon looks like an recycle logo within a folder icon). If you are using your own email client such as Outlook, AppleMail, or Thunderbird, you can simply drag messages into the "Junk" folder to report it as spam.

The more you do this, the more the system will learn what is and isn't junk and cut down the unsolicited emails you receive. If you change your mind and want to get an email back out of junk you can simply go into the 'Junk E-Mail' folder and drag your email back into your 'Inbox'.

Never Respond to Spam

If you recognize a message as spam, don't open it. If you do happen to open it. Close it. Do not click a button or any links within the message. Do not download any files that are attached to any message you even remotely suspect as spam.

Opening spam because it appeared to be coming from a friend or someone you know, contact them immediately and let them know that their account has been compromised and they should look into it immediately.

Keep that email address hidden

The more people that have your email address, the more spam you will receive. So please, please, keep your address close and only give it to those you trust.

Never. Never publish it on the web unless you must. And if you have to, use a different email address for that purpose.

Disposable email addresses are great for when you aren't comfortable sharing your real one. Mailinator for example is a good place to grab disposable emails addresses.

Use Third-Party Spam Filters

Most of the major security suites come with an anti-spam filter that can assist the one used on your local client. In other words, it will work in email clients such as Microsoft's Outlook or Mozilla's Thunderbird, but not Outlook.com.

Additionally, our Webmail client, does provide the server-side use of the Sieve mail filtering language. There are a number of Sieve scripts available on the web, and it's simple to extend and create new Sieve scripts with a bit of research. Sieve could be used to block or reject unsolicited emails with recurring patterns, at the users discretion.

You can find out more about Sieve here: http://sieve.info/

For additional filtering you would need to use third party spam filtering such as that provided within a different mail client, or a tool like Spamhero or Spamilator.

We also recommend reporting spam to SpamCop: https://www.spamcop.net/anonsignup.shtml

Reports through SpamCop notify all service providers which are involved in delivering the email, and the companies which host any links placed in the email body.

Failure for companies to heed SpamCop warnings can be blacklisted, and their emails blocked from reaching their destinations.

If you receive a number of spam emails from the exact same email address, or spamming the same website address, and if you are familiar with using our webmail client, you can also use our Email Filtering to block the email.

Change Your Email Address

This is a very drastic option, but if you've responded to the spam in the past, or haven't hidden your email address, you are more than likely overloaded with spam. This may be your best option.

Changing your email address will require that you contact your legitimate contacts about the change of address, and you will probably have to keep the compromised address for a short period. But once you are able to get rid of the old email address, the sheer number of spam emails you receive will plummet.

If you have any further questions or concerns relating to spam/junk email, please open a support ticket.