Spam controls threaten reliability of e-mail

However, these controls are putting even more legitimate mail at risk of not being delivered, reports The Globe and Mail. Eric Allman, of Sendmail Inc, notes that spam and spam-fighting have ‘in some cases eroded the reliability of the mail system’, as a great deal of legitimate mail now gets filtered out. Richi Jennings, of Ferris Research, estimates that a typical e-mail users may lose anywhere from one legitimate message every couple of months to as many as five each week. US Internet service provider Verizon has come under criticism from e-mail users for the loss of many legitimate mail messages through its spam-filtering techniques. Now five Verizon customers have jointly filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging Verizon breached its contract by failing to provide a dependable e-mail service. A Philadelphia-area law firm is seeking arbitration, arguing that it lost potential clients. ‘When you go to work every day, you expect e-mails to you will be gotten to you on a regular basis,’ said Michael Boni, a Philadelphia attorney who filed both cases. Although Verizon is the hot seat over the loss of e-mail, it is certainly not alone in misclassifying legitimate e-mail as spam – known as ‘false positives’. Full report in The Globe and Mail