- How is Spam identified?
- Do I have to host with ITS Group Information Technology to use
Stealth Spam Control?
- How does Stealth Spam Control work?
What happens to Spam that you eliminate?
Will the Spam Filter delay delivery of my email?
I am still getting some Spam I thought Stealth
eliminated all of it?
How did so many people get my email address
anyway?
Will Stealth scan outgoing mail, or just
incoming mail?
Does someone read my personal email?
Do I need to download any software?
1.How is Spam identified?
Stealth Spam Control goes beyond the rule-based, keyword
identification techniques commonly used by anti-spam products. In
addition to these traditional techniques, Stealth uses a combination
of artificial intelligence and a pattern matching process to
identify bulk Email.
One thing that all spam has in common is that it is sent out in
bulk. By using it's intelligence and algorithms, Stealth can
identify these bulk messages, even when they are not completely
identical. Knowing that a message has been sent in bulk allows
Stealth to be more aggressive in identifying and eliminating spam.
No other anti-spam product is as effective as Stealth at identifying
and eliminating unsolicited Email or spam.
2. Do I have to host with ITS Group Information Technology
to use Stealth Spam Control?
No, now anyone that wants to take advantage of our Stealth
Spam and Virus protection can, even if you have your own mail server
INCLUDING Microsoft Exchange Server, Groupwise, Novell, or
any other proprietary mail server can use Stealth. The BONUS
for routing mail through our system, it gives an extra layer
of security as well it makes your server invisible to the rest
of the world. All this without making any major changes to your
existing system. We can you have you
up and running in 5 minutes. Please contact us for
details 1-780-618-7756 or emails
sales. Now you can
be protected from all the nasty spam, viruses and junk out there.
3. How does Stealth Spam Control work?
Stealth works by scanning your messages as they come into our
mail server. Stealth assigns points to specific terms and phrases.
For instance if your incoming email message contains the words
"you'll be amazed", Stealth assigns 1.077 points, and "for only
[some sum of cash]" gets 0.201 points. If the message has been
assigned more points then your threshold, the message is considered
Spam and rejected (or marked as Spam, depending on your personal
settings). Messages with viruses are sent back to their originator,
before they get to your computer
4. What happens to the spam that you
eliminate?
When Stealth identifies an Email message as spam, it is set
aside and not included in your normal Email. You can check the mail
that has been set aside using Spam Summary part of the Stealth
Control Panel. Messages in the Spam Summary will be deleted in a
period of time unless you tell Stealth you want them sent to
your normal email program.
If you find an Email message that you want to receive, such as a
newsletter you like, you can tell Stealth to include that
message in your normal mail from now on. In this way Stealth learns
what kind of Email you like to receive and what you don't.
5. Will the Spam filter delay delivery of my
mail?
No, not noticeably. All mail is checked as it reaches our servers,
so there is a slight delay as your email is scanned. For a normal
email this process takes fractions of a second so the delay will not
be noticeable.
6. I am still getting some spam. I thought you
eliminated all of it.
Sometimes it is not clear if an Email is spam or not. Although
our software is very helpful, it can't catch every piece of Spam
because there is no exact formula or pattern that Spam follows.
Stealth will help reduce the amount of Spam you receive, but will
not block each and every piece. Most viruses will be blocked since
the virus filter is updated daily and you'll have the most
technically advanced email protection for your computer.
7. How
did so many people get my e-mail address anyway?
There are many ways in which spammers can get
your email address. Here are some of them:
- From posts to Usenet newsgroups that
contain your email address. Spammers
use special programs to scan newsgroups and
extract email addresses. Some people respond
by editing their email addresses so that they
will be invalid if used as is; this is called
'munging' the email address. One way to do
this is to add the word 'nospam' in the middle
of the email address, knowing that legitimate
users will be smart enough to correct the
address before they use it. However, many
spammers are rewriting their scanning software
to fix munged email addresses.
- From mailing lists. Spammers
use various tricks to try to get themselves
added to legitimate mailing lists in order to
harvest the email addresses.
- From web pages. Spammers use
scanning software as described above to visit
web pages and gather email addresses. One way
to fight this is to 'munge' your email
address. If you're skilled in web design, you
can use a 'poison' CGI script which floods
scanning software with fake email addresses.
Some website operators collect email addresses
or other personal information from visitors,
and sell the lists to spammers. This
collection can be done by via a form that the
visitor fills in voluntarily, or by sneaky
means that the average visitor will never
notice, including javascript or poorly
configured or designed web browsers. When
visiting a new website, it may help to check
their privacy policy for their position on
spam before entering your personal
information. Any company to which you give
your email address may be selling it to
marketers, even if you didn't give it to them
over the internet.
- From Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
If you chat on IRC, the program you use may
have an 'ident server' or 'finger server'
built in. These is a legitimate means for the
chat servers to keep track of their
connections and prevent abuse of their
services, but spammers can also use it to try
to get your email address.
- Other means. Spammers can
guess at email addresses by noting the name of
an ISP and guessing that someone there will
have, for example, 'john@random-isp.com as an
email address. By checking for bounce messages
or asking for return receipt, they can weed
out the bad guesses and build a list of
working email addresses. Spammers can try to
harvest addresses from online white or yellow
pages directories.
It's possible that one of your co-workers
could be a spammer. By accessing your computer
when you're away from your desk, it is
possible to copy your address book. Spammers
can also use internet hoaxes ("forward this
email to everyone you know!") to accumulate
addresses.
8. Will I be able to tell when it's blocked an
email spam from being delivered to me?
Yes, Stealth Anti- Virus can send out E-mail notifications.
9. Does someone read personal emails?
No. All email processing is done through automated filters, in
milliseconds. In the event a "suspicious" email is discovered, it
will be directed to your private Message Center pending your review.
10. Do I need to download any software?
NO. That's a key advantage of Stealth. All of the Stealth
protection services are run off our internal mail servers so there's
no need for you to have to download any software to enable this
service on your Stealth account. Simply
sign up online and we'll take care of the rest.
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