Sometimes, our mail server will pass through email messages which, on the surface, appear to be spam. Careful investigation of the messages sent, however, usually shows that they fall into a ``gray area'' between spam and legitimate email.
Some users have a spam problem because they have signed themselves up for a number of opt-in mailing lists. When you look at the messages in the user's Inbox, you will find that many are not "spam" in the literal definition of the term. And so, the anti-spam checks in the mail server did not mark the messages as such.
There is a difference between regular spam and "gray-area" spam. The difference is that the 'gray area' spam isn't really unsolicited commercial email. You may be familiar with the frequently-seen checkboxes where one can "opt in for future mailings from our affiliates" and from these signups, ``gray-area'' messages take their legitimacy. To the mail server, the commercial messages in your customer's mailbox look no different than messages from any other commercial vendor... They originate from a valid, non-blacklisted mail server which operates according to 'best practices.' Sure, their content is commercial in nature, but the messages are directed to the user in a manner consistent with legit commercial email.
Please be aware that opting into a legitimate mailling list also has the possibility of the subscriber being legitimately opted in to other mailling lists.
Our mail server should not stop these messages. Some anti-spam solutions do go quite far with their filtering and will block all commercial email, forcing users to whitelist. However, this is not an ideal situation.
We recommend that you try to unsubscribing to a few of the mailings and see if it yields results. It is also advisable that you perform a spyware scan, since many spyware applications are also advertising magnets. |