Friday, February 27, 2009

Get rid of unwanted email with Postini


How to get rid of unwanted email - and make sure that you receive all of your email

As you know, when one student in your class asks a question, other students would also benefit from the answer. I receive a question from one of your colleagues and would like to share it with you for this reason.

Question
Hello Susan! I am in e-mail hell, and wondering how to block unwanted e-mail -- I try, and it keeps coming. This is an example. [Example removed]

Solution - https://login.postini.com/
Thankfully, Scripps uses Postini to scan incoming email for viruses and spam (junk mail). It works well!

Block specific email addresses with Postini
  • Login to Postini using your Scripps email address and password.
  • Click on the My Settings link (top right)
  • Select the Block Senders link in Junk Settings
  • Copy and paste the email address of the sender you wish Postini to block into the Block Senders box
  • Click the Update Blocked Senders button
  • Generally, it is not a good idea to block an entire domain, particularly free email services like hotmail.com. (I did add ebay.com to my Blocked Senders list because I do not use my Scripps address for eBay.)
Postini's quarantine summary
  • Postini will send you an email Quarantine Summary with a list of suspicious messages that have not been delivered. It is a good idea to review this list.
  • Occasionally a message is quarantined that you would like to receive. For example, if a student uses gMail to receive and send email from her Scripps email account, Postini marks this message as spam/junk email (because it is not sent from the Scripps server). If you see a message that you think should not have been quarantined, you can click on the Quarantine summary to have it delivered. If you are not sure, to be safe you can login to Postini, read the message in your Postini account, and then have it delivered.
  • Under no circumstances should you add your own Scripps email address to your Postini Approved Senders list. Postini should not block your email from Scripps. Sending a message that is apparently from you is a technique that spammers use, and Postini can tell when it is used.
  • For the same reason, it is not a good idea to add an entire domain, like scrippscollege.edu.
There may be an unsubscribe link or button at the bottom of a message. Clicking on it should be avoided–unless it is a legitimate company that you know like Adobe, Laemmle Theatres or someone you know using Constant Contact (a professional bulk email service). For email address collectors, clicking that only confirms that your email address works - and that you are reading your spam.

Here is a guide to using Postini:
http://www.scrippscollege.edu/campus/it/pdf/postini.pdf

Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions.