SPAM

Internet Service Providers have a direct practical and financial incentive to deal with the problem:
a) they have to protect their very expensive bandwidth and
b) their clients insist that their ISP do something to protect them from Spam.

ISPs are therefore highly motivated to get rid of the problem, but they face these problems:

  • Spam cannot be identified by sender email address because it is forged
  • Spam cannot be identified by email subject because it changes constantly
  • The body of Spam emails has random words and misspelled names to prevent easy detection. (For instance, Viagra is spelled V.iagra, vi.agra or viagr@, etc)
  • Spam is sent from millions of virus infected PCs so it is difficult to find and track Spam servers
We have implemented three services to help in the prevention of Spam:
  • AlignAfrica.com has implemented a real time blacklist (RBL) system from www.spamcop.net This is a centrally maintained database of server addresses that have been positively identified as the source of Spam. This service rejects Spam at SMTP level (as we start receiving the email) and rejects emails from known Spamming servers. This list continually gets updated and changed as Spam servers are being reported by ISP's and other companies that subscribe to this service. We check this list immediately and automatically on receipt of every email. There is no charge to you and you do not need to do anything to enable it. You cannot request to be removed from it, as this is implemented for ALL users.
  • AlignAfrica.com’s Webmail with Spam Assassin. This product filters Spam into your Spam folder online and includes Content Scanning. This is done by a set of strict rules or heuristics it works on. Using your incoming emails source code, subject line, headers, mail servers and taking a very calculated guess as to whether an email is Spam or not. Once you have selected your tolerance level, any email scanned and found to exceed the tolerance level will be delivered to your Spam folder. Tolerance level 0.5 is the strictest, while tolerance 7.0 is the most relaxed. We recommend starting on 5.0, and working down the scale to best suit your needs. Remember to delete emails from your Spam folder before your mailbox fills up. Please go to http://webmail.alignafrica.com/ to login and use the webmail facility.
  • You can download and subscribe to the eScan ISS desktop Anti-Virus, Content Security, Parental Control, Spy ware detection and anti-Spam software for Windows, which scans all data for viruses and objectionable contents.
    • All the functions of eScan VC version: -
    • Real time PC and Email Virus Scanning.
    • Real Time Content Scanning for all kinds of email and Internet traffic
    • Now with Spyware detection and Removal
    • Fast/Automatic daily Internet updates (usually far less than 1 MB in size)
    • NetBios Firewall
    • * PLUS with the ISS version: -
    • Parental Control (optional and password protected)
    • Protect yourself from SPAM
    • Privacy Control, where Internet history files will be cleaned at regular intervals.
    • Popup Blocker
    • You must manually configure the Escan Spam option to enable this.
The blacklist maintainer investigates Spam complaints and once a server has been positively implicated, its address is added to the black list and the administrator of the server is notified that his server is now blacklisted. (Mail servers cannot hide their Internet addresses, so Spammers cannot falsify the information) In addition to this, the RBL provider publishes hundreds of thousands of email addresses (honey pots) where Spammers can easily send Spam to them. Once a Spammer sends an email to one of these email addresses, that server is immediately classified as a Spam server. This technique works very well because the Spammer has no way to know that joesoap@yourname.co.za is actually not a real person but a Spam trap. ISPs and Companies now use this RBL to check each and every email coming in to their servers. If the sending server is a known Spammer, the email is flagged as Spam and rejected immediately – before it lands up in your In Box. The RBL is constantly updated as the Spammers move their accounts to new ISPs or when they use a new Zombie PC to send Spam, because they inevitably send Spam to a honey pot address, causing that source of Spam to be identified and blacklisted. Are there any downsides to this? The possible downside is that we will automatically reject Spam if it is sent from a blacklisted server or ISP, and notify the SENDER. Considering most rejections will be from known Spammers, this will protect you. There may be cases where your friend or colleague who has successfully emailed you in the past may get emails rejected - the only reason for this is that their ISP has been blacklisted, and the solution is for the SENDER to report this to their ISP. Even responsible ISPs can be blacklisted periodically - and providing they take strict action against their users - this blacklisting can be reversed within a short period. This will not be a content scanning service, so we will not block emails containing racist or sexist or pornographic words - we only block emails from known Spamming servers (which is automatically and continuously updated). Should you wish to block content, look at Webmail with Spam Assassin. and eScan ISS. Your browsing and News services will be unaffected. We are implementing this valuable service for all subscribers at no charge to you, and you do not have to make any changes.

What is Spam?
Spam is unsolicited email promoting a product or service via email. 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! South Africa's contribution to Spam is minimal, although we are just as vulnerable to Spam as anyone else. Spam is also used as a mechanism to exploit unprotected machines. Many home and business users' computers are sending out Spam because of this. Zombie computers are sending out over 40% of the world's Spam, usually to the complete ignorance of the home user. Spammers are in it for the money. They send 10 000 000 email messages to get 10 sales. Tomorrow, send another 10 000 000 emails and get another 10 sales...and so on. Some of the most notorious and largest Spammers make more than US$ 1 million per year! All reputable Internet Service Providers (ISP) will terminate a user’s account immediately if they are identified as a Spammer, so the bad guys will typically get an internet access account from an ISP (using false information) and then push as much Spam through that ISP as possible before their operation is detected and the account is closed, so the Spammer just moves on to the next account. In many cases this process of burn and run is automated by special software.

Why is Spam such a nuisance?
Receiving emails advertising free holidays, free prizes, International banks, pornography, viagra and just about any other product or service from an email recipient you have never heard of is a nuisance for just about everyone with an email address. It's no secret that Spam is an enormous nuisance and productivity killer. The economic damage caused by Spam (lost productivity and network congestion) was estimated to be between US$58 billion and US$78 billion in the first quarter of 2004 alone. Some users receive 13 Spam emails a day, taking approximately 5 minutes to download - over 365 days it will cost you almost R900.00 per year in telephone costs alone. Then add your unproductive time and stress to that.

How do I prevent Spam from the start?
Only give out your email address to reputable online companies. Do not post your email address on message boards, newsgroups or guest books. Read the privacy statement of websites before registering as a user of their site, and make double sure they do not sell email addresses to cover their monthly costs. A large proportion of online free services sell databases to cover monthly costs (nothing in life is for free). Basically if you EVER use an email address, you will at some stage get "spammed".

How do I report Spam?
  • You can report Spam directly to www.spamcop.net and they will take relevant actions to investigate or blacklist the sender.
  • You can report Spam to your ISP i.e. abuse@alignafrica.com, we would then contact the correct parties. However we do need the full headers of the email. If you do not send the full headers, we cannot do anything!!
Below is an example of how to retrieve your full email headers from a received email using Outlook Express 4, 5 and 6: Start by opening the message in it's own window (or when viewing the message in the preview pane).

From the key-board:
  • CTRL-F3 (Message Source Window)
  • CTRL-A (select all)
  • CTRL-C (copy)
  • ALT-F4 (close)
  • CTRL-V in the email you will send to abuse@alignafrica.com
With the mouse:
  • Click the "File" menu
  • Click "Properties"
  • Click the "Details" tab
  • Click "Message Source"
  • Highlight, copy and paste everything from this window (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C) CTRL-V in the email you will send to abuse@alignafrica.com