Email Traffic, Spam, & Delivery Delays at Boston College

Spam On the Rise
What you need to know about Email Delays and Spam
Complexity of Problem
We’re Not Alone
How BC is Fighting Spam
What You Can Do to Help

 

Spam On the Rise

  • Over the past year, Boston College has seen a tremendous increase in the volume of spam/junk email received.
  • According to one external study, since August 2006 there has been a 70% increase in overall spam volume across the Internet, and a 600% increase in spam using images rather than text.
  • Scope of the Problem at BC & Beyond

What you need to know about Email Delays and Spam

  • Occasionally messages sent from BC email accounts to Yahoo, Hotmail, and other commercial email service providers are delayed or rejected; this is a side effect of the widespread spam problem.
  • As of April 18th we have changed the server send timeout to one hour. That means that if you are sending email to a well maintained service provider - Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, a university, etc. - you will be notified within ONE hour if we are unable to deliver your message. If you do not receive a delay or rejection notification within one hour, then your email has been successfully delivered to the addressee's email server.
  • After the message gets to the addressee's email server, their service provider delivers it to the individual's Inbox. BC can guarantee we have successfully sent the message from our system; however, we cannot always validate that email has been successfully received on the other end because not all service providers are sophisticated enough to respond with an error message.
  • If your email is rejected, try sending it again. Many service providers have very dynamic filtering policies. Sometimes the filtering adjustments block spammers and legitimate senders – like @bc.edu email addresses. For assistance with repeat rejections or delays, forward the email to bounce@bc.edu.
  • Interested in more detail? See: Why is email I send to Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. delayed or blocked?

Complexity of Problem

  • Unfortunately, the issue of unsolicited bulk email is complex and there is no perfect solution.
  • There are a number of factors involved that are beyond our control. It is a constantly evolving problem.
  • For example, the spammers relentlessly develop new methods of sneaking past spam filter and detection products.

We’re Not Alone

  • This situation is not unique to BC; it has become a world-wide problem.
  • Universities across the country are challenged by spam. Learn what Stanford is facing on their campus.
  • Why am I getting spam?


How BC is Fighting Spam
At BC, Information Technology Services has been aggressively working to minimize the amount of spam received.


What You Can Do to Help