Spam Resource
We’ve all been tempted; you’re probably surprised I haven’t already attempted to write blog posts here on Spam Resource using ChatGPT. I still like to generate by content the old fashioned way (poorly) so not only will I avoid using AI to write blog content, but I’ll be sure to avoid using it to generate email content, too. Turns out, somebody at Vanderbilt University thought it would be a good idea to use ChatGPT to write an email in response to the recent Michigan State University Shootings, and now they’re getting nothing but negative feedback about it. Read it yourself here, courtesy of Buzzfeed’s Pocharapon Neammanee.
Customer.io “is an automated messaging platform for tech-savvy marketers who want more control and flexibility to craft and send data-driven emails, push notifications, in-app messages, and SMS.” And they’re hiring! Could you be the Deliverability Specialist they’re looking for?In that Deliverability Specialist role, you will “assist our customers with deliverability support requests and act as a point of escalation for Technical Support and Customer Success teams. In addition to working with customers to resolve their deliverability issues, you will also perform outreach to inform customers about any breaches of Customer.io’s strict Anti-Spam Policy.”To learn more or to apply, click here.
Today: Let’s talk about domain warming.You might have heard about IP warming. I’ve talked about it before (and my Kickbox colleague Jennifer Nespola Lantz has covered the topic in great detail). TL;DR? IP warming is, when you’re newly sending from a particular dedicated IP address, you build up your sending reputation, to maximize your chances of solid inbox placement, by slowly building up your email send volume over the first thirty days or so of email sending. In other words, you don’t just show up and start blasting millions of emails a day. You limit your volume until internet service providers (ISPs) and mailbox providers (MBPs) know who you are.Domain warming is a very similar concept. When you introduce a new domain name, either because you’re launching anew, or because you’re rebranding, domain warming means starting out with low volume sends referencing that domain, and building up volume over the
Hey, as the weekend approaches, why don’t we celebrate the life of Trugoy from De La Soul, who passed away recently, by listening to the group’s fun song “A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays.” Enjoy.
As previously suspected and expected, internet security company Cyren will be liquidating.From their recent 8-Q filing: “Following the Company’s unsuccessful efforts to sell its assets or raise more capital to continue its operations, on February 20, 2023, the board of directors of Cyren Ltd. (the “Company”) reached the conclusion that the Company is insolvent and lacks the funds to continue as a going concern. Accordingly, the Company’s board of directors resolved to cease all activities of the Company and its subsidiaries, terminate the employment of all remaining employees of the Company and its subsidiaries, apply for liquidation procedures of the Company in Israel by appointment of a third-party trustee, in accordance with applicable law, and commence applicable liquidation, assignment and/or insolvency proceedings for each of the subsidiaries of the Company.”MailChannels, Spamhaus and others are offering replacement service to those affected by the pending collapse of Cyren’s services. I talked about
The Register’s Thomas Claburn details a recently shared research paper exposing troubling examples of loopholes in email authentication, allowing bad guys to spoof messages via email forwarding. Thankfully, some of the potential loopholes reported have already been addressed by specific email service providers. Some might say “don’t share this, as we don’t want to give the bad guys more ideas,” but I think it’s important for everyone to read and understand potential limitations and/or bugs in how things are implemented today, so that we can focus on addressing those problems, sooner, rather than later.Click on through to read “If you’re struggling to secure email forwarding, it’s not you, it’s … the protocols” over at The Register. (Great title, though it’s not always the protocols — sometimes it’s the implementation thereof.)
Mashable’s Tim Marcin and others are reporting that a failure in Microsoft’s spam filtering has resulted in Outlook.com (Hotmail) users receiving a bunch of spam in their inbox unexpectedly. Meaning, something broke — a something that would have previously either blocked those messages or relegated them to the Junk Folder.I wasn’t able to confirm this myself; my personal and test Outlook.com addresses are too well protected from public view; meaning they’re not on any common spam lists. I’ve updated my website contact info to use an outlook.com account, so I’m sure I’ll start getting spam there soon. Maybe I’ll be able to observe this for myself. (Hey, that’s aliversonchicago@outlook.com, for all the spambots out there.)This could be causing a unique scenario or two. Not only are bad guys perhaps scrambling to send as much garbage as they can before the spam filter loophole is corrected, but for email sending platforms
It’s a simple matter of reputation logic. Lower engagement means you’re more likely to look like a spammer to the ISPs. High engagement means you’re more likely to be perceived as respectable (and more likely to get inbox placement). So, this might seem obvious, but not everybody knows, do they? Anyway, the tip is this: Encourage engagement by asking for replies. Ask for your user to provide you feedback, either by responding to your email messages or by encouraging them to click through to a survey or feedback form. Clicks and responses are both solid positive feedback. Boost the positive feedback and you boost your chances of getting to the inbox. ‘Nuff said.
Founded in 2006, the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) is a messaging industry working group comprised of sending and receiving platforms, security companies and more come together to collaboratively address spam and internet security issues.Initially, the group was called “MAAWG” and focused on email and anti-spam. Over the years, their focus has expanded, thus the “3” reflecting growth from just “messaging” to “messaging, malware and mobile” in their mission. Anti-spam and security best practices for both senders and receivers (things like the right way to send mail without being a spammer, and the most appropriate ways to block spam) are just one of the common areas of discussion. Folks within M3AAWG also work together to address technical issues around email and messaging technology and emerging threats. (I say “email” a lot here as it’s really my personal focus. I’ve got friends who specialize in other areas as M3AAWG members
From 17:00 GMT on Feb 16th through 09:50 GMT on February 17th, spam filterer/security service Spamhaus suffered an outage that meant that “data included in the Data Query Service, Rsync, Spamhaus Intelligence API, and Border Gateway Protocol Firewall was not refreshed between these times.”The way most Spamhaus data is shared with the world allows for quite a bit of redundancy and resilience against downtime, in that DNS queries can be cached, DNS zones are handed out to and stored by different remote DNS servers. Meaning that while some of Spamhaus core systems may have been offline during this time, spam filtering continued unabated. They’re saying that their ability to make any updates (additions or removals) was effectively blocked during the downtime, meaning anybody waiting for removal from a Spamhaus list probably had to wait a bit longer for a response than usual. And also, perhaps spam filtering effectiveness was down