Why use a blacklist for spam, junk, and phishing email?
A blacklist contains email addresses used by known spammers and phishers. Email originating from an included address is filtered out and does not arrive at your inbox.
If you receive numerous email messages pretending to be from service@paypal.com, you can add the domain paypal.com to your blacklist in Skidmore Spam Firewall. Future messages from this domain or pretending to be from this domain will be rejected. They will not be quarantined and they will not arrive in your inbox.
Should all spam addresses be blacklisted?
Most people who send spam change addresses regularly. Entering their addresses in the blacklist is futile.
On the other hand, if you regularly receive email pretending to be from paypal.com, chasebank.com, chase.com, or ebay.com, the consistency of the return address makes it a good candidate for blacklisting. Keep in mind that if you actually have an account with one of these entities, you should not blacklist them!
Is there any chance you will correspond with a legitimate employee of the corporation? For example, is it possible that one of our graduates works at JP Morgan Chase or that your office has applied for grants from their foundation? You don't want to block those lines of communication so in these special situations, you would not want to blacklist chase.com.
OK. How do I blacklist an address?
1. Log into the spam firewall quarantine: http://www.skidmore.edu/spam
2. Once in the quarantine, click the Preferences tab.
3. Right under the Preferences tab, click the Whitelist/Blacklist button.
4. Type the domain that you want to block in the blacklist section.
5. Click the Add button. The domain is added to the blacklist of blocked addresses.
6. Unless you have more to blacklist, log out of the spam quarantine.
7. After logging off, close the browser window.
Related Information
An example of a phishing email message and how to analyze it:
The following URL will take you to the page: http://www2.skidmore.edu/it/staff/phishingexample.html
JPMorgan Chase & Co. security alert
Here is the URL:
http://www.chase.com/cm/cs?pagename=Chase/Href&urlname=chase/cc/privacysecurity/reminder
Barclays Bank says it well:
"We will never ask you for personal details by email."
Among the helpful advice at http://www.barclays.co.uk
This page is maintained by Brien Muller, IT Help Desk
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Revised 2007.11.28