SpamStopsHere uses several popular "Real-time Blacklists" (RBLs) of mail server IP addresses known for spamming. The specific RBLs used are listed in the table below.
As the description implies, the third party Real-Time Blacklists are maintained by third parties, not SpamStopsHere. These blacklists are collections of IP addresses that were reported to have sent spam to their users. If a sender's email is coming from an IP address on one of the blacklists that you are subscribed to, the message will be identified by this filter.
As stated above, we don't maintain these blacklists. You will need to contact the list maintainer in order to determine why one of your senders was listed. The status of an IP address being listed does change, and it doesn't require any changes on your end to get more of your legitimate or spam email identified by this filter from one day to the next. It just depends on who you receive email from, and whether they're listed in the real-time blacklist that day. Therefore results will vary. It's possible that these messages are unwanted, but the email did not trigger any of our spam filters.
Many organizations get listed in a real-time blacklist because a workstation on their network is sending spam. This can be the result of a virus infection, a malicious spamming user or unsound mailing list policies. Many ISPs such as AOL or Comcast could also have their email servers listed temporarily for the same reason, causing all email from that ISP to be tagged.
The default setting is to modify the email’s Subject: line by adding "[Blacklisted Sender]". This tag is informational only - it may help you to determine whether to look at the message.
These filters typically will identify less than 1% of your email. If you don't find these tags useful, you can disable them by unsubscribing from these filters in the SpamStopsHere Control Panel. Note that many anti-spam products use only these types of IP address-based filters, and in the past it was more common to block messages identified by them. Because they tend to be inaccurate, however, we do not recommend DELETING or REJECTING messages caught by these filters. In addition, there is no need to QUARANTINE (an Enterprise Edition feature) these messages. These types of filters should simply be used to provide additional information about the source of the message.
You can find out more about each blacklist by viewing the organization's web site.
To change the selected "blacklist" databases:
- Click on "Edit" next to "Real-Time Blacklists".
- Check the boxes next to the blacklists you would like to use, or uncheck to not use.
- Select one of the four radio button options next to the action you would like to take on email caught with this filter (MODIFY SUBJECT Recommended).
- Click on "Set" to save the changes.
