Anti-spam overview

Overview

This article provides an overview of spam and how it is managed at DreamHost.

What is Spam?

Spam (also known as "junk" mail) is unsolicited email or mailing/distribution lists that advertise a product or service or even promote a website. Unlike opt-in mailing/distribution lists, spam does not allow the recipient to express interest before receiving an email. 

When sent in large amounts, it can cause additional load on mail servers, which in turn causes slowness and delivery issues to the end user.

How DreamHost responds to spam

DreamHost takes a very strict policy against spamming from its servers and makes efforts to prevent users from both sending and receiving spam. If a DreamHost customer is caught sending spam, or even sending spam from another service to promote a site hosted with DreamHost, their account is immediately disabled without a refund (even on the first offense), as this violates DreamHost's Anti-Spam Policy.

In cases where the sender's intent is unclear or DreamHost is unable to determine if a spam complaint is with merit, the site is not deactivated until the complaint is verified.

Determining if a complaint is valid

DreamHost reserves the right to determine whether or not a spam complaint is valid. The following table describes guidelines that assist in this goal and may prove useful in ensuring that your own actions are protected under the terms of service:

Situation	Explanation
A message uses forged headers	This is automatically considered spam, as there is no reason to forge headers when sending legitimate correspondence.
A large number of complaints are logged from numerous individuals	This is strong evidence that the message fits the spam profile, as legitimate mailings usually do not provoke this sort of reaction from their recipients.
Your bulk mailing advertises tools for sending spam or email addresses used in the practice of spamming	Promoting spam is not permitted.
Your mailing uses a deceptive subject or tone (i.e., 'Hello friend!' in the title) with an apparent intent to deceive people into reading it	This is a sign of spam.

Reporting spam to DreamHost

If you believe spam is being sent from a DreamHost account, please submit a support request to the Abuse Department. Make sure to provide as much detail as possible, including the full headers of the spam message to help support confirm if it's spam or legitimate email.

If you're not currently a DreamHost customer, you can send spam reports to abuse@dreamhost.com.

Identities of those who report spam

DreamHost does not divulge the identities or email addresses of anyone who submits spam complaints without their permission.

This is to prevent potential retaliation from spammers and also because the reporter's identity is not necessary to confirm whether someone has complied with DreamHost's policies. For example, this is why you're asked to provide the entirety of your opt-in confirmation logging data upon receiving a complaint.

Malicious complaints

Some people report email as spam for malicious reasons. However, please understand that DreamHost does NOT disable accounts for spam complaints.

Accounts are only disabled due to spam policy violations. This means that as long as you are following the rules, you have nothing to worry about from a malicious spam complaint.

How can I prevent spam?

The following are different options available to prevent spam.

Configure Allow/Block lists

DreamHost offers Anti-Spam settings by default on all email accounts. Additionally, you can also configure Allow/Block lists on the Spam Filters page. See this article for further information.

Configure custom filters

Another option is to create custom message filters, which allow you to apply your own rules to filter incoming email.

These filters are useful in other ways, such as organizing your mailbox to filter mail into folders or delete mail that matches based on rules you create.

Follow mailing list and group posting rules

Mailing lists

Make sure that you understand the following requirements before sending any type of bulk email.

1. Opt-in - Recipients must specifically ask to be placed on your distribution list (via a web-based form or email request) to ensure only those who sign up are added to your mailing list.
2. Opt-in confirmation - Recipients must confirm their intent to be placed on your distribution list. This ensures that, someone can't sign someone else up for a list without their knowledge or consent. Only the person who has access to the email address being subscribed to the list can confirm the opt-in. 
3. Unsubscribe option: You should also provide instructions for unsubscribing with every mailing and honor all requests to be removed from your list.
4. Prove Opt-In requirements - You must be able to prove that the opt-in confirmation occurred (provide date/time/IP logging of confirmations).

Newsgroups

If you wish to post a message to a newsgroup of a promotional nature, make sure the group's charter allows for such postings (as many do not). It is your responsibility to check the charter of any newsgroup you post to to determine what is acceptable.

What software can I use?

The only bulk email software DreamHost officially supports is an Announcement List. This is available in the panel on the Announcement Lists page.

It enforces the opt-in confirmation and logging requirements, and its use is the recommended way to help ensure that your bulk email usage is spam policy compliant.

Never respond to spam

Under no circumstances should you reply to any address(es) that appear to allow you to be removed from a spammer's list. Doing so usually means you incur more spam, as the spammer will sell your address to other spammers.

The fact that you reply means that your address is valid and worth more in the underground market where working email addresses are sold. This is one deceitful approach spammers use to filter out 'good' addresses from the bad.

See also

DreamHost links

• Configure Anti-Spam settings
• Sender Domain Policy and Spoofing
• DreamHost Anti-Spam Policy
• How do I enable message filters on my email address?

Third-party links

• cauce.org
• abuse.net
• spamcop.net