TC3net has made several upgrades to it's anti-spam system over the past few months, trying to lessen the impact of spam arriving at our customers inbox. We've had a few questions from customers, about what exactly is and is not considered Spam, and what is generally a good practice to keep their email accounts from showing up on spammer's list in the first place.

Q. *What is Spam?*

A. Spam is any message or posting, regardless of its content, that is sent to multiple recipients who have not specifically requested the message.

Q. *Why do people Spam?*

A. Web sites that are less reputable or that have privacy policies
that are less strict may sell your email address to spammers. Just
as some merchants send junk mail to your house, spammers send
unsolicited email with the hope that you will buy their products
or services. Since it is very inexpensive to send an email
message, spammers can afford to send millions of them, even if
only a small number of people respond by purchasing their
products. They send their messages from numerous different—and
often falsified—addresses, which makes them hard to track.

Q. *How did the spammers get my email address and How can I avoid getting on their list.*

*Never respond to unsolicited email.* One response or "hit" from
thousands of emails is enough for spammers to justify the
practice. In addition, a response lets the spammer know that your
email address is active, which makes it more valuable and opens
the door to more spam.

*Never send your personal information* (credit card numbers,
passwords, etc.) in an email. Spammers can fake the addresses of
TC3net users and other trusted sites. TC3Net will never ask you to
send your password or credit card information by email.

*Never follow a spam email’s instructions to reply* with the word
"remove" or "unsubscribe" in the subject line or body of the
message unless you trust the source. This is often a ploy to get
you to react to the email, which lets the spammer know that your
email address is valid.


*Never click on a URL or web address listed within a spam email*,
even if the message tells you that’s how you unsubscribe. This
also alerts the sender that your email address is active and can
result in more spam.

*Never sign up with sites that promise to remove your name from
spam lists.* Although some of these sites may be legitimate, most
are actually address collectors. If a collector records your
address, they will value it more highly because it is active.

*Never open an unsolicited email unless you have blocked HTML
graphics.  Blocking graphics prevents spammers from being alerted when you
open the message.

Spam Filter Configuration

Login to our homepage at www.tc3net.com with your email address and password. Click on My Mail, you can see Spamfilter at the top. Once in there, you will see 2 links Email List Management, and Reset to Defaults.

Email List Management:
There are two portions to this area, the whitelist and blacklist. If there is an email address that you are not receiving any messages from, but you should be, make sure Whitelist is selected from the pull down box, type the email address, and click Add Entry. Now every message that gets sent from that address will bypass the Spam Filter and get delivered to you. Consequentially, if you are receiving emails from a specific address that the spam filter isn't blocking, you can select Blacklist from the pull down box and type the offending email address in the box and click Add Entry. That setting will cause the spam filter to automatically block all messages coming from that address.

If you wish to block or receive emails from anyone at a specific service, for instance, yahoo.com, you substitute the address in the entry box.

Here are some examples:
help@domain.com (this allows the email address help@domain.com)

You would just put the corresponding address in the entry box, select whitelist or blacklist, and click on Add Entry. The messages will be blocked or allowed from the address specified.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know. You can reach us at 888-682-1256 or 265-7872 and press option 2 for tech support. Our support hours are 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year.
Thank you,

Technical Support
TC3net