The problem of Spam is an Internet epidemic and we need a multi-pronged approach where each of us has to do our part. Please refer to the NUS No-Spam website for more general information on combating spam from the perspective of an email user.

Specifically, herewith are the information you will find with regards to the usage of NoSpamMail service.

1. How do I subscribe to the NUS NoSpamMail service?
2. What should I do to make use of the service?
3. That sounds great. So what can I expect?
4. Do I have to create the Spam folder myself?
5. Help! I have accidentally deleted the Spam folder!!
6. What do you do with the Spam?
7. Why can't all the Spam be blocked straightaway?
8. There are mails that are wrongly classified as spam, what can I do to prevent this?
9. I am still receiving Spam in my Inbox!
10. My friend has a problem sending an email to me and the error message is about email being refused. What is wrong?

1. How do I subscribe to the NUS NoSpamMail service?

No subcription is required. NoSpamMail is activated for all staff and students of NUSmail accounts.

 

2. What should I do to make use of the service?

Nothing needs to be done on your part. NoSpamMail is implemented on the e-mail server and will take action on the Spam.

 

3. That sounds great. So what can I expect?

Once a mail has been detected as Spam, it will redirected automatically into the Spam folder of your mailbox. An example is shown below:



 

4. Do I have to create the Spam folder myself?

The Spam folder will automatically be created for all Staff's and Students' mailboxes. Please DO NOT create or delete it on your own.

 

5. Help! I have accidentally deleted the Spam folder!!

Please check if the Spam folder is residing in Deleted Items or under any folders in your mailbox. If this is the case, you may drag the Spam folder back to the original position. If the Spam folder can no longer be found anywhere within your entire mailbox, please wait for it to be automatically re-created within the next 24 hours.

Please DO NOT re-create the Spam folder on your own.

 

6. What do you do with the Spam?

There are basically a few categories of spam, namely:

• Adult
• Racial
• Make Money Fast
• Phishing
• Commercial
• Bulk

Only Commercial and Bulk spam will be delivered into the Spam folder of your mailbox. The rest will not be delivered at all.

 

7. Why can't all the Spam be blocked straightaway?

It is believed that there is no 100% perfect method to define what is spam to everyone. As such, Commercial and Bulk emails will still be delivered to your mailbox. It is then up to the individual discretion to deal with the Spam.

Note that all e-mails residing in the Spam folder will be automatically purged after 30 days. This is done in order to help you preserve precious e-mail storage space while allowing you ample time to recover useful e-mail that is wrongly classified as spam.

 

8. There are mails that are wrongly classified as spam, what can I do to prevent this?

If there are emails that are wrongly classified as spam, you can use the "Approve Sender" feature to ensure that e-mails from the user will not be treated as spam again. To do so, open up the e-mail in outlook and click on "Approve Sender" as shown below:



You may also view the Approved Sender List to ensure or to review the list of senders whose e-mail will never be treated as spam. The Approved Sender List is a sub-folder under the Spam folder.



Note that the usage of Approved Sender List is only supported on Outlook2002/Outlook2003 running in Microsoft Exchange Mode. It is not supported on other mails clients such as Outlook Web Access, Eudora, Outlook Express etc.

 

9. I am still receiving Spam in my Inbox!

If there are Spam that are not redirected into the Spam folder, so called residual spam, please ignore and delete it.

 

10. My friend has a problem sending an email to me and the error message is about email being refused. What is wrong?

As part of NoSpamMail, spam hosts in the Internet that tries to connect to NUS are blocked. Senders who happens to use such spam host to send their email will encounter error messages similar to the following:

550 5.7.1 Mail from <ip address> refused by rbl-plus.mail-abuse.org. 
Please see http://mail-abuse.com/cgi-bin/lookup?ip_address=<ip address> for further information.
	                              

OR

   ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
(reason: 450 Service temporarily unavailable for xxx.xxx.xx.xx. Please try again later.)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to mail2.nus.edu.sg.:
<<< 450 Service temporarily unavailable for xxxx.xxx.xx.xx. Please try again later.
... while talking to mail3.nus.edu.sg.:
<<< 450 Service temporarily unavailable for xx.xxxx.xx.xx. Please try again later.
... while talking to mail4.nus.edu.sg.:
<<< 450 Service temporarily unavailable for xxx.xxx.xx.xx. Please try again later.
... while talking to mail1.nus.edu.sg.:
<<< 450 Service temporarily unavailable for xxx.xxx.xx.xx. Please try again later.
Deferred: 450 Service temporarily unavailable for xxx.xxx.xx.xx. Please try again later.
	                              

In such a situation, the remote email administrator should take action to stop all spam activities, thereafter request for removal from the blocking list (as detailed in www.mail-abuse.com) accordingly.

Specifically they may want to verify if their host ip address has been listed. They should navigate to http://www.mail-abuse.com/cgi-bin/lookup.

After the servers have been removed from the list, the sender's email will be able to be delivered to NUS again.