View source for KB 440

===Filtering of Forwarded Email===
 Article ID: 440
 Created: Dec-28-2006
====Question or Symptoms====
 
    What filtering does SWCP do for email they forward to my AOL or Comcast account?
 
====Resolution====
 
    AOL and Comcast use a spam filtering method whereby they block any email
    server which sends them a certain amount of spam.
 
    This causes a problem when we forward email messages for a customer of
    ours to an AOL or Comcast address.  If you receive spam emails, our system
    will forward those to your AOL address along with any "real" emails you
    receive. If AOL looks at these forwarded messages and sees some that are
    spam, they count that as a black mark against the SWCP mail server.
 
    Of course SWCP didn't originate the spam.  It came from somewhere out
    there in the world.  But AOL can't figure out where the spam really
    originated.  All they can tell is that SWCP's mail server is the one
    that gave it to them, so they count it against SWCP.
 
    If AOL or Comcast sees more than a few of these spams in a given time
    period, they automatically block SWCP's mail server.  When that happens,
    ALL SWCP customers who try to send mail messages to AOL or Comcast users
    are affected.
 
    We have taken several steps to mitigate this but we are down to the
    point where we MUST filter forwarded mail which is destined for AOL
    or Comcast.
 
       ***** ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== *****
       Starting December 28, 2006, we will apply a spam filter to all
       FORWARDED email which is destined for either AOL or Comcast.  The
       filter is somewhat lenient because we don't want to delete good
       messages by mistake, but there is the chance that some legitimate
       messages will be discarded.  THERE IS NO FACILITY FOR YOU TO CHECK
       THE DISCARDED EMAILS FOR MISTAKES.
       ***** ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== *****
 
    Representatives of both AOL and Comcast have told us plainly that they
    know this policy results in some legitimate email not being delivered
    to their customers, but they are not able to change the policy.
    (Frankly, as someone who knows the pain of running a moderately
    busy mail server, I don't blame them.  They must be getting crushed
    under the staggering spam load.)
 
    We're not happy with this situation, but this is the least of several
    possible evils.  If this situation is untenable for you, there are
    a couple of options:
 
    1. Get a different email account from an ISP which does not use the
       same blacklisting policy that AOL and Comcast are using.  That may
       be hard.  For example, Gmail or Yahoo would be a good choice today,
       but we may well be forced to do the same kind of filtering for those
       ISPs in the future as well.
 
    2. Establish a POP account on SWCP's system.  This costs $2.50/mo.
       This gives you access to SWCP's spam filter.  You can control the
       level of spam filtering, and any "deleted" messages are saved in a
       spamfile which you can inspect if you think a legitimate message
       has been blocked.  You can either have the legitimate messages
       forwarded to your existing AOL or Comcast account, or you can read
       them directly on SWCP's mail server.
 
 
    If you are no longer using the alias,please tell us so we can delete it.
    Defunct and forgotten aliases can result in a lot of spam, so getting rid
    of it would be helpful.
 
    If you have any questions about this, please feel free to email us or call.
    Thank you,
 
    SWCP Staff
    help@swcp.com
    505-232-7992
    888-792-7266