A rising phenomenon is causing a lot of private and business grief for e-mail people. I hope that this may give you some understanding of what is the issue and how to address such problems if and when they happen.

Why are my e-mails being blocked?

The rise of SPAM (unsolicited e-mail) has plagued every e-mail account holder since the Internet became commoditised. As the anti-virus industry grew, so did the anti-SPAM market and there are many services which you can add into your e-mail client to sort through the rubbish and the real.

In the ISP world, there is a move towards using services that can identify the sources of SPAM or likely routes that it uses and services such as MAPS and SORBS address this market. However, unlike the consumer filter products, MAPS and SORBS are accountable to no-one and once they have your ISP IP addresses, it is you as the consumer who is going to be most affected by their policing policy and the result is blocked e-mails.

What has happened is that someone has reported you as a spammer and MAPS and/or SORBS has added your ISP to their database. Until the ISP IP addresses have been verified as non-SPAM sources, you will be unlikely to send e-mails to that target.

How do I resolve this problem?

Basically you can't. Once this happens, the only way to get the blocks removed is to get your ISP to
work with MAPS or SORBS to have the IP addresses removed from the block
filter. MAPS is difficult to work with -  SORBS is impossible.

You need to write to the company who owns the target e-mail address domain (eg: NTLworld.com is owned by Virgin Media) at their head office (which you can find at the bottom of their terms and conditions of service) and demand that they resolve the issue.

Why is this important?

Just as a credit reference agency holds information that is shared, MAPS and SORBS also share data. If you are being blocked as a SPAMMER or for any other reason, the agency that is blocking you has made an implied accusation which is a crime under UK law - that of being a SPAMMER. If you are a small business or a home worker, the effect of this can be devastating and debilitating. In one move - over which you have no control - you are being denied access to the people with whom you have a business or personal relationship. If this propagates through the system, you can find that in the space of a VERY short time, you are isolated from the e-mail world.

Sounds dreadful, but I've never heard of it before ...

You are lucky. AOL users experienced this only a short time ago and now some Virgin Media customers are going through the pain and misery. As cyber-crime rises, instances of this are also likely to increase. If you are fore-warned, you may be able to do something about it if it ever happens to you.

What are my rights if this happens to me?

SPAMMING is an offence in UK law. If you are being blocked, then you have a right to know why this has happened - or at least you would have thought so. Unfortunately, this is the private sector we are dealing with here and unless they have a large number of customers being affected, there is little that you can do. If you own the domain from which e-mail is being blocked, you can seek an injunction against the company concerned to have the block lifted, but this is expensive if you are not 100% certain of your facts. Your first order of business is to write to the ISP who is blocking your e-mail and ask them why this is happening, sending them a copy of the bounced e-mail's header information. Note down when this started, and try to resend the message in plain text WITHOUT any attachments. If your e-mail is still rejected, then write again seeking clarity on the reasons for the block. After seven to ten days, if you have not received a reply and your messages are still being blocked you should seek legal advice.

What about sending to private companies?

None of this is applicable if you are sending e-mails to private companies or other organisations that have their own internal procedures. These may choose to block an e-mail if it offends their own policies. In these cases we have found that simply ringing up their IT department usually fixes the problem - although in the case of one university it ended up causing more problems than it fixed.

And finally ...

As the world moves to being a single gossiping village, SPAM and unsolicited text messages will become an ever increasing problem. Everyone has the right to privacy and everyone should be able to hide critical information from unscrupulous companies and individuals. Always have anti-SPAM and anti-MalWare software on your computers and mobile devices and make sure it is kept up to date. Keep copies of all correspondence and returned messages and NEVER give out account passwords - even to the organisations who own the sites. Legitimate support will never ask you for a password.

Always challenge the authority of MAPS and SORBS users - these so-called services should be banned unless regulated and made accountable and it is up to all of us to make sure that this happens.

SHARK!