Phil Harrison

Can anyone tell me whether this is above-board??

Last week I was sent an e-mail from an academic source overseas. It discussed - perfectly legitimately - an anti-doping case in our sport. The words "drug" and "dope" did not appear in the e-mail, tho' the word 'Laboratory' appeared in the subject line. My ISP saw fit to return it to the sender with a note saying that "Security Policies" had been violated, and that they would therefore refuse to deliver it. (Other copy addressees in the UK got their copies unblocked).

On querying exactly what was going on, and why the ISP had seen fit to censor it, I've received the lame answer that it was thought to be 'spam', probably on account of the word 'Laboratory'.

I should Ko-ko!! I don't buy this, because if each and every e-mail deemed 'spam' was responded to by the recipient ISP, then the overwhelming weight of spam already on the Net would be doubled at a stroke!

The normal process is, is it not, to tag it, to retain it on a server for one week (accessible by webmail) and then delete it (or some similar variant thereof)?

So, what process is being operated in this case? Thoughts, anyone??

Cheers

Phil

BlkKnight

Depends on the ISP.

AOL would do something like this. Others would not.

It's a prime example as to why you should have your own domain & email out of control of 3rd parties.

boomer

That sounds like an illegal intercept to me (breaking RIPA)!!!

Check your Ts&Cs, and also whether there are "optional" SPAM filters that you can enable. For example, i am with Demon and elected (my choice) to enable their e-mail filtering option. It appears to work very well, as i get almost zero SPAM and yet i have never (knowingly) had legitimate e-mail blocked.

Or let us know your e-mail address and i will send one with "bomb" or similar in the Subject to see if that gets blocked/bounced

mb

Phil Harrison

Thanks Boomer....Yes, the ISP filters with my permission, and does a good job. However, the process undertaken (return to sender, undelivered) doesn't seem consistent with designation as "Spam" - and hence my concerns.