Email Filtering

What is email filtering?
Email filtering is the removal of unwanted email, whether it be an outbreak of a new virus, "spam" or a "phishing" attempt on the mail servers before it reaches your mailbox. Spam wastes time and energy that can be better spent sending and reading legitimate email. It also frequently contains messages that many people find offensive. Our spam, phishing and virus outbreak filtering service is being provided in conjunction with Cloudmark Inc, a leading supplier in this market. For further information on these filtering services, please visit: http://www.cloudmark.com/serviceproviders/authority/
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Why is the anti-phishing service important?
Losses attributed to phishing, the use of spoof emails to trick Internet users into divulging confidential information to steal identities, totalled £21.7 million in the first half of 2006 according to UK trade association for payments and payment services, APACS. Unlike spam attacks, phishing attacks are low in volume and often target specific users with invitations that appear to be from trusted vendors to a website that looks legitimate. These disguised sites are often online for just a few hours or days. Phishing attacks are often overlooked by most anti-spam solutions due to their low volume and transient nature. We are able to identify the unique attributes of phishing attacks and quickly block them before they reach you.
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What are the benefits of this email filtering service?

The filtering service is automatically activated.
Customers can opt out (or opt back in again) at any time.
It will reduce the volume of unwanted email that arrives in customers' mailboxes.
It will reduce customer costs and frustration of manually filtering email.

How much does this email filtering service cost?
The services will be available to THUS' Demon customer base, including small to medium-sized businesses and home workers, and will protect subscribers from the growing threat posed by Internet crime. THUS is the first provider to launch an anti-phishing service free with Internet access in the UK.This service is free of charge to customers of Demon dial-up, Home & HomeOffice broadband products and the many Demon Business Broadband variants that use POP3 mail collection.
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How accurate is this email filtering service?
No filtering system is 100% accurate, and there is a very small chance that a non-spam email will trigger a filtering rule by mistake. However, if your correspondents are sending email via a system that has been flagged as generating nothing but spam then it may be blocked as well. If legitimate email is being blocked then the sender should then receive a "bounce" message. In the most unlikely event that your correspondents have any problems then please send the details of this to us at helpdesk@demon.net so that we can investigate and adjust as necessary.

You may still see a small amount of incoming spam. If your address is targeted before Cloudmark spots the spam run then you'll be unlucky enough to receive some spam. However, overall, THUS believes that this is a very effective spam filtering system and recommends customers use it to reduce the volume of unsolicited email.
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What email will be filtered, and how do you know it is spam?
Demon Email Filtering is based on Cloudmark's technology. Cloudmark employs networked collective intelligence, a combination of intelligent message fingerprinting, corroborated global feedback and automated data analysis to deliver unmatched accuracy and the fastest response to new threats. This scheme means Cloudmark will not block properly run mailing lists, legitimate mailshots to customers or indeed mass emails sent by your friends to invite you to a party. For more information see: http://www.cloudmark.com/serviceproviders/technology/
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When will the service be introduced?
The service is already running.
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How do I "opt in" to the email filtering service?
The service will be activated automatically.
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How do I "opt out" of the email filtering service?
You can opt out of, or opt back in to, the email filtering service at any time by simply visiting https://www.password.uk.demon.net/webpassword.cgi and following the online instructions. For further help please click here .
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Which products have email filtering?
The Demon spam filtering service will be available to most our service customers / our products. To check if the service is available to you it is necessary to determine how you receive your incoming mail from our service. Those customers who receive email from the cluster of servers know as the 'punts' will receive the filtering service. This includes all customers who receive their email to a '*.demon.co.uk' address, whether collected by SMTP, or POP3. Customers who receive email directly to their own servers, or via our 'relay' servers will not be able to benefit from this email filtering service.
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What can I do if this service is not available with my product?
Customers with Demon Internet Leased Lines, High Speed Internet and Ethernet services may want to consider the optional Demon MailDefender service which includes the anti phishing service from Cloudmark.
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Can I trial this service?
Yes, even though this service will be activated automatically you are able to opt out at any time.
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Can I see which of my messages are being detected as spam?
No. The system does not generate detailed information on a per-customer basis.
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What happens to my filtered email?
The spam detection takes place as we receive the email message. Messages sent to customers using the filtering service are examined using the Cloudmark system and those that are determined to be spam are just not accepted. An error code is returned to the sending machine and we don't keep a record of the contents of the email.
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What should I do if I am still receiving spam?
If you are not seeing any reduction in the amount of spam received, check that the filtering service is enabled for your account. In order to do this please visit: https://www.password.uk.demon.net/webpassword.cgi Please note that the filtering service is not guaranteed to remove all spam, but we expect it to make a substantial reduction to the amount that customers receive. Also, if your email is being forwarded via a third party then the original source will have been obscured and so some of the filtering algorithms will not be applicable. This may mean that you get slightly more spam than otherwise. If this applies to you then you may wish to review your email handling arrangements.
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Will this work on a computer that isn’t running Windows?
Yes, all email scanning is carried out while in our network before coming into contact with your workstation, whether it be a Mac, Windows PC or PDA.
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Does the anti virus outbreak filtering service replace my desktop anti-virus software?
No, the anti virus outbreak part of our new suite of solutions is complementary to traditional desktop anti-virus software. We are offering an additional layer of security for Demon customers working in an automated fashion, quickly collecting virus email samples following new outbreaks only. In contrast traditional desktop anti-virus software is able to block known viruses but can remain vulnerable to new outbreaks until an update or patch is installed. Our anti virus outbreak service filters email, which is the main way most viruses get onto victims computers. However, no email filtering service can protect your computer against malicous programs on disks you insert directly into your computer or downloads you make from websites.
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What about filtering outgoing email?
At this stage we do not filter email sent out through "post.demon.co.uk". Our open mail relay and proxy testing provides further information on our proactive monitoring. We are also continuing to develop our systems and processes to allow us to detect customer machines that have apparently been compromised and used to send junk mail. Customers are reminded that the sending of Unsolicited Commercial and/or Bulk Email via our network is not tolerated under the terms of our Acceptable Use Policies. These can be viewed by clicking here
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