SDB:How to Send E-Mail Messages to the Company SuSE

Situation

You want to send a query to our Support Desk or a purchase order to our Sales Dept. by e-mail.

Background

Since May 2002, we (have to) use a spam filter to control the spam flood sent daily to our e-mail addresses.

Spam refers in this case to UBE or UCE (Unsolicited Bulk E-mail/Unsolicited Commercial -mail).

Nowadays, more than 500(!) spam messages are daily sent to our support and customer services. The spam filter directly saves those messages that qualify as spam by fulfilling precise and machine-readable criteria in a separate file. Thus, our employees can handle your queries better and do not have to "struggle" with lots of advertising e-mails.

In addition, due to the Windows worms Klez, Badtrans, and SirCam, we receive about 50 to 70 additional messages per day that have to be automatically filtered, too.

The software we use to detect spam is called spamassassin. This program employs a complex set of rules to detect typical spam messages by means of a text analysis. In addition, several realtime blacklist (RBL) services are used to check if the message has been delivered through an open relay. These RBL are, for instance, the free available services Open Relay Database oder Osirusoft.

Instructions on how to write an e-mail

You can help us to process your query fast and smoothly and to correctly identify your query as such by considering the following points when submitting your e-mail message:

• If possible, use plain text instead of HTML in your message. Never use pure HTML messages without alternative text.
• Do not enclose any .exe or .scr files as mail attachment. This kind of messages will always be rejected.
• If you operate your own mail server, please check if it is listed in any of the following RBL services:
  • RBL Relay.Osirusoft.com
  • ORDB
  • RFC Ignorant All these RBL services offer the possibility to check your mail server and to conduct a simple test to find out if your mail server is listed on a black list. If your mail server or domain is included in one of these lists, we recommend you to solve this problem straight away. Otherwise, you are likely to have mail delivery problems to other domains, since these RBL are used by many mail servers.
• Set the correct time and date on your computer. Spammers often use a manipulated time or a non-existing time zone to place the message at the top or at the bottom of the index (mostly classified in chronological order) of your mail program.
• Avoid using !!!, $$$, and ???.
• Finally: Try to use an expressive sender address ("From" field) with your name and surname, and avoid ISPs that force you to use meaningless nicknames. You should particularly avoid using combinations of letters and numbers (e.g. michael124@example.com, an21zu@example.com).

Thank you in advance for observing these instructions. <keyword>SPAM,QUERY,E-MAIL,EMAIL,SUPPORT,MESSAGE</keyword>