Your email may not get through
With postal mail, thanks to the U.S. Postal Service you know that every letter you send will at least reach the recipient's mailbox.
This is not true with email! To protect themselves from spam, viruses, and unwanted email, both the Internet service providers (ISP) that handle email and the recipients messages are addressed to set up blocks, filters, and blacklists. The result is that your messages must run through an unfriendly gauntlet:
-
Virus filters
- ISP virus filters: Email services scan the email they handle and discard messages that either are infected or MAY BE infected, if the apparent risk is high. For example, many ISPs remove .ZIP file attachments from email messages because virus writers recently have begun using that type of file to get past virus filters.
-
Spam filters
- ISP spam filters: Many email services run spam filters on all the email they handle, discarding messages most likely to be spam to protect their services from being swamped by useless messages.
- User spam filters: Many people run their own spam filters to automatically discard unwanted messages and allow them to use email for the work they want to do.
-
Blacklists
- ISP blacklists: Email services (including UW Email) have blacklists of sites that send them too much unwanted email. Mail from any of the blacklisted sites is discarded. Email service providers share their blacklists with each other.
- User blacklists: Users can set up their own blacklists (email addresses to block) and whitelists (email addresses to allow through).
UW Technology has no control over the management decisions of other ISPs or email services, software installed on personal computers, or organizations that maintain blacklists, so UW Technology may not be able to help if your email does not reach its intended destination.
Resources
Email Blocking Articles
Anti-Spam Laws
- Washington State Attorney General information junk email
- Federal Trade Commission CAN-SPAM Act
- CAN-SPAM Act - Public Law 108-187
