ArchiveJuly 2013

Barracuda filters clicking all links

Earlier this month I mentioned that a number of people were seeing issues with multiple links in emails being clicked by Barracuda filters. I invited readers to contact me and provide me with any information or evidence they had. Not only did a number of senders contact me, but one of the support reps at Barracuda also contacted me. At issue is a part of the Barracuda email filter call the intent...

The death of IP based reputation

Back in the dark ages of email delivery the only thing that really mattered to get your email into the inbox was having a good IP reputation. If your IP sent good mail most of the time, then that mail got into the inbox and all was well with the world. All that mattered was that good IP reputation. Even better for the people who wanted to game the system and get their spam into the inbox, there...

Know what you're promising, and keep your promises

Although we can’t always provide a personal response to your complaint, we do investigate all reports. Please don’t interpret a lack of response as a lack of action taken. If we find that a customer is violating our policies, we will take make sure they stop the violating activity. That’s the response I had when I reported a particularly annoying spammer to a major ISP this...

TWSD: Mail known spam trap addresses

One of the things we all “know” is that if spammers get their hands on spamtrap addresses then they’ll stop sending mail to those addresses. This is true for a lot of spammers, but sadly it’s not true for all. I don’t think it’s any secret that I consult for all types of mailers, from those who just need a little tune up to those who want me to help them avoid...

A new twist on confirmation

I got multiple copies of a request to “confirm my email address” recently. What’s interesting is the text surrounding the confirmation request. Hello, I have a list of potential customers in your area. The list includes several ways for you to contact them. I would like to send you a sample of this list to the address I have on file: spamtrap@example.com. Can you call me today...

Happy 4th of July

Judging by my inbox and the spam filter here on the blog spammers have taken the week off. We’re mostly following suit here, and I won’t be blogging the rest of the week.
To all my fellow American residents, enjoy the day off and the fireworks. Be careful if you are setting some off and live in a dry area, fires are scary.
 
 

Strangers, connections and social media

One of the major challenges of social media is letting people connect with folks they don’t know while preventing abuse. Most of the major social networks are trying. Let’s look at LinkedIn and the tools they give users to stop abuse. Overall, they are pretty good about stopping their platform from being abused, but don’t have many processes to stop folks from harvesting...

Barracuda clicking all links in emails

A number of people have asked me recently if I know anything about appliances clicking all the links in emails. Some of those people have asked specifically about Barracuda, some have just asked if I knew of any filters that clicked links. The answer is, yes, there are cases where spam filters have followed all the links in an email. One of the filters that I know has done this in the past is...

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