What we do for you.

Our servers use SpamAssassin anti-spam software that mark email that we believe to be spam by adding the word 'SPAM' and a score to the email subject. This allows you to setup rules that will automatically move email with 'SPAM' in the subject to you spam or deleted items folder. 

Spam Assassin scans the contents of each message before it reaches your Inbox, searching for words, phrases and formats common to Spammers. The search then assigns a score, higher being more likely to be Spam and lower being less likely.  

Because Spam Assassin searches the message itself, rather than an outside source, it cannot catch every message. Spam consisting primarily of images cannot have their contents searched and will almost always get through. 

For an additional fee, we can change your filtering to use Postini. Postini is an advanced Spam and virus protection tool designed to filter out harmful and annoying content before it hits your machine. Utilizing increasingly advanced and customizable protection tools (designed by Google) Postini will stop most Spam problems. 

Each e-mail address can be independently configured to work with Postini, utilizing it's own settings, Whitelists and protection levels. 

By default, a message is sent to you each evening, with a list of blocked e-mails. If you see one you need, or from someone you trust, you can choose to deliver it.

Catch-all's are generic mail boxes that collect all email not being sent to a named account. The up-side of catch-alls is that if someone spells an email address correctly then you still have a chance to access the message. The down side is that automated mailers send emails to randomuser@yourdomain.com. So by removing your catch-all email account you will stop a majority of junk messages. By default we do not use catch-all's. 

What you can do. 

1. Make sure that you dont publish personal email addresses on your website.

   Automated systems 'trawl' websites looking for email addresses, adding them to lists without your permission. If you do want to publish a personal email address disguise it using javascript or as an image (these will be inaccessible and stop some disabled viewers from emailing you), or even better, replace the email address with a contact form allowing you to pre-qualify enquiries by asking detailed questions or giving a choice of specific variables.

2. Set up a generic email address for use on forums, registration pages and other situations where you know that you may be opening yourself up to receiving spam email.

   We use sam@ (that's spam@ without the p) and all emails from such sites are collected centrally where they can be reviewed and acted upon e.g. To validate your registration etc.

3. Don't use single names i.e. fred@ for your email address.

   Again, these addresses can be guessed and within a few minutes a flood of spam begins to arrive. Instead opt for firstname.surname@. An added benefit is that it makes sure your contacts really know who you are.

4. Don't use sales@ support@ or any other guessable addresses for the same reason as above.

   Instead come up with your own codes for online contact forms etc. As they're being accessed through a form and don't need to be entered manually - you can really go wild with these.

5. Register a dedicated email domain.

   It may be a bit extreme, but if spam becomes so unmanageable, it may be worthwhile registering a completely different address to email from. This could be name@emailcompanyname.com.

6. Use an email program with integrated spam filtering.

   Outlook (not express) has limited in-built spam filtering. A better option would be to use Mozilla's free email program Thunderbird, which automatically tags possible spam for you. A great feature of Thunderbird is you can set the default view to show all messages marked as not-spam, which dramatically reduces the amount of clutter and enables you to toggle between spammy and non spammy views.

7. Subscribe to a mailing preference service.

   There are a number of mailing preference services out there that operate as closed email networks. In order to send a message to a member of these systems, you have to register on the website and provide proof that you are who you say you are. As someone who wants to send a simple message, this can be pretty hard going, with lots of forms to fill in; but as a recipient, you know that all messages being delivered are from authentic sources.

8. Don't send bulk emails using TO or CC.

   If you're sending the latest Friday Funny, or a quick promotional offer to friends and/or colleagues, don't use TO or CC. These types of email have tendancy to be passed on to persons unknown, the result is that everyone you've listed as an original recipient could be easily added to a list by an unscrupulous individual. What makes this worse is that not only are the original recipients easily visible, but also the subsequent chain(s) of people.

Disclaimer

We have strict policies against spamming and bulk email. Users who Spam via email, newsgroups, etc., are not allowed on our servers. If we receive complaints of spamming and bulk email, we will remove you from our network. 

If you have a spam complaint, please address it to abuse@hostmonster.com. Please include a copy of the email in question, including the headers. 

During recent years spammers, have come up with new ways to 'dodge' spam filters. They change information contained within their e-mails to not be detected and use images instead of text so that filters cannot 'read' the e-mail. They are also sending these e-mails from many different locations, that change day to day, so IP blocking is also not effective.

The spam filter we use on all our servers contains information from the top spam blacklists. We combine this with our own specialized spam detection and blacklist information. The result is the best spam protected hosting environment anywhere.

Rest assured we are doing everything we can to try and block spam messages from coming through. However, the spammers are also doing everything they can to get through. This is not a problem that is unique to our servers, it is a problem that is occurring worldwide. Anytime you have your own domain name on the internet, you are more open to receiving these spam messages. If you have not done so already, you will want to ensure that your actual site is as 'spam-proof' as possible.

If you have any forms on your site, encrypting their information or using a technology such as CAPTCHA will likely cut down on the spam you receive as well.

Any scripts such as phpBB, Wordpress, Joomla, etc. are all 'exploitable' in some way by spammers and spam-bots. Recent versions of these have protections built-in. Make sure all of your scripts are up to date. If they are, but you appear to be receiving spam through your scripts, check the support forums of the particular script to see if there are ways to prevent spammers from exploiting them.