Fighting SPAM

[Sega]

Hi there guys,

I am having a growing issue with SPAM.

I use Site5 for my hosting company and within CPANEL I've enabled the SPAM filters and SPAMAssissin. That being said I still get a large amount of SPAM.

My clients are having the same problem. I am wondering if there is anything I can use to prevent SPAM.

[2ndmouse]

Without direct access to your server settings, there's not much you can do. This is really your hosting provider's responsibility. Keep pushing them for info until they do something about it.

[Sega]

Without direct access to your server settings, there's not much you can do. This is really your hosting provider's responsibility. Keep pushing them for info until they do something about it.

What do you make of this, http://www.spamhero.com/, looks fairly promising. I have contacted my hosting company and I got the following message:

I do apologize for that SPAM problem you and your client are experiencing with.
You may want to enable SPAM Assassin on your cPanel (and on your client's cPanel account as well), and configure it score.

By default, the score is set to “5″. This is a good starting point as it will pick up a majority of the spam that comes to your email. If you notice that a good number of spam messages are still coming through, you could try lowering this number to 3 or 4.

I have added the spam filter, but the issue still does persist. I am thinking possibly because I had the email addresses included in the web page it made it easy for bots to scan and get the email for spam purposes. In either case I can't disapoint my clients, so a solution needs to be found.

[2ndmouse]

I have no experience with spamhero. I still maintain that it is the provider's responsibility. Why should you spend money on a problem they should be solving - in their reply, they are apologizing for the problem, which, by inference, is accepting responsibility.

Keep chasing them and try and find out if any more of their customers are affected.

[Sega]

I have no experience with spamhero. I still maintain that it is the provider's responsibility. Why should you spend money on a problem they should be solving - in their reply, they are apologizing for the problem, which, by inference, is accepting responsibility.

Keep chasing them and try and find out if any more of their customers are affected.

I am very happy with my hosting company. I am sure that the issue might have to do with either them or the WordPress installation. I don't wish to change my hosting providers. I honestly don't mind incorporating something extra into my management cost if it's going to benefit the customers.

[2ndmouse]

I'm not suggesting that you change hosting provider. No harm in trying something like spamhero, it has a 30-day free trial offer I believe. Still worth pushing your provider though.

As you're using WP it might be worth looking for a suitable plugin, but that would have to be installed on all your WP sites.

[EastCoast]

Some of these are akin to closing the barn door after the horse has bolted but nonetheless:

Make sure you don't have any 'catch all' email addresses set up.
If possible avoid generic addresses such as info@ sales@ etc
If possible use forms on their website and avoid unprotected email links on the site
Turn on greylisting if the customer can handle a short wait on email delivery of incoming mail
Educate customers on not using primary business email addresses to sign up/register/subscribe to anything
Use google apps email or other 3rd party email service that is competent