MindState Internet uses The SpamAssassin - software designed to tag unsolicited commercial email (also known as "SPAM").  SPAM trys to sell you anything from mailing lists to home mortgages to pornography.

SpamAssassin searches each incoming email message for certain characteristics of typical SPAM.  These include things like:

Bright red bold text
Lines of "SHOUTING" (all capital letters)
Words and phrases indicating sales pitches or porn
Messages sent with incorrect dates or from non-existent time zones
Lots of "white space" (spaces) in the subject line

Each characteristic found in an email message is given a certain numeric score (anywhere from 0.1 points to 5 points or more.)  When a message's total amount of points exceeds SpamAssassin's SPAM threshold, the email is tagged as SPAM by the addition of: *****SPAM***** in the message's subject line.  We use this tool to allow our subscribers to set up easy and effective SPAM filtering on their end.  Messages tagged as *****SPAM***** can be automatically moved to a unique folder, where they will no longer be a nuisance to the user and where they can be easily deleted.

While SpamAssassin works with a very high degree of accuracy, it won't catch everything, and it may label some legitimate email as SPAM.  Most email that gets falsely labeled comes from opt-in mailing lists - usually online retailers trying to sell you something.  Only a small percentage of those types of mailings will get falsely labeled.

It is extremely unlikely that any person to person email will be falsely labeled.

To learn how to set up Outlook Express to filter SPAM using SpamAssassin, please click here.

To learn how to set up Microsoft Outlook to filter SPAM using SpamAssassin, please click here.

To learn more about SPAM and why it is important to take these measures to stop it, please visit:  Abuse.net

For more information about SpamAssassin, please visit their website.