How the Spam Filter’s Email Confirmation System Works

The Email Confirmation feature can potentially reduce the number of spam messages you receive to zero. It assumes that the only trustworthy messages are from email address of people and organizations you already know about. It automatically attempts to verify the validity of incoming email addresses it has not yet incountered.

Triggering the Email Confirmation System

When a new message arrives, the Email Confirmation System kicks in if the following conditions are met:

• The sender is not on your Black List.
• The sender is not already on your White List.
• Based on the message content, the message doesn’t receive enough “spam points” for the Spam Filter to automatically delete it.

What happens next?

The Email Confirmation System sends an automated message to the sender of the questionable email. If the sender replies to the message (thereby authenticating that he or she is a “real” person) the Email Confirmation System will add the address to your White List. The original message will then be delivered to your Inbox. Since the person has been added to your White List, subsequent messages from him or her will be delivered to your Inbox automatically. The confirmation process will not be repeated.

Flow Chart of the Email Confirmation System

The flow chart to the right helps to illustrate the Email Confirmation process. It’s important to note that the only messages requiring confirmation are:

• Messages from senders not in your White List or Black List and...
• ...that passed through the Spam Filter without being automatically deleted.

How does Email Confirmation reduce the amount of spam I receive?

Most spam is sent with an invalid or forged return address. When the confirmation system tries to send the confirmation email, that message will never be read by human eyes. Since no reply to the confirmation message will be received by the Email Confirmation System, the message will be treated like spam—it will automatically be deleted.

On the rare chance that a spam sender uses a real return address, it is unlikely that the spammer will take the time to reply to the confirmation message. Of course, if a spammer’s address is mistakenly added to your White List (which is highly unlikely) you can simply remove it and add it to your Black List.

Cautionary Measures When Using Email Confirmation

Keep in mind that the Email Confirmation System does not trust any address that is not in your White List. Even if an incoming message is not considered “spammy” by the Spam Filter, confirmation will still be required. Therefore, you should take the following steps to minimize headaches when using the Email Confirmation feature.

Add the addresses of your friends and family to your White List before enabling Email Confirmation.

Though confirmation is only required once per email address, the friends and family who try to send email messages to you may find the whole confirmation process confusing. You can prevent confusion and “email anxiety” by adding all the email addresses of your friends, family, and other trusted email sources to your White List. That way, people you know will be able to continue emailing you without being challenged.

Add address/domains of automated email sources.

If you receive messages from automated sources such as online stores, mailing lists, or newsgroups, you should add them to your White List. The return addresses for these types of messages are generally valid, but the mailboxes for them are not monitored. The Email Confirmation System will challenge such messages when they are first encountered, but no one will respond to the confirmation request.

Setting Up a Confirmation Key

If you provide a Confirmation Key, the Email Confirmation System will scan incoming messages for the key text before it forces them through the confirmation process. If the key text is found in the message, the sender is automatically added to your White List and the message is delivered to your Inbox. If the key text is not found, the message is sent through the confirmation process.

Why is this feature useful?

The primary use of this feature is to automatically confirm addresses of people who reply to conversations you initiate.

How the Confirmation Key Works

Ideally, you set the Confirmation Key to a word a phrase which always appears in messages you send. For example, if you enable your email program to attach “signature text” to the bottom of messages you send, you can use some part of that signature text as your Confirmation Key. Here’s the scenario in which this feature works.

1. You send someone a message (which includes your “signature text,” and therefore, your Email Confirmation Key!)
2. That person replies to your message.
3. The sender is not in your White List.
4. The Spam Filter does not think the message is spam.
5. The Email Confirmation System scans the message for the Confirmation Key.
• The reply contains a copy of the message you sent (assuming the replier didn’t delete your text.)
• The Confirmation Key is found by the Email Confirmation System.
6. Having found the Email Confirmation Key in the message, the Email Confirmation System automatically adds the sender to your White List and delivers the message to your Inbox.