SpamTrap is a fully-managed, server-side antispam and antivirus service. It uses a multi-stage process to identify as much spam as possible while never losing legitimate emails.

Unique Advantages of Managed Service
Cost-saving. Easy implementation. Worry-Free.
To implement an in-house, business-grade antispam system requires an IT staff that has knowledge in this area and the purchase of related software and hardware. By using managed services, such as SpamTrap, an organization can free up valuable IT resources and save on the upfront IT costs.

Managed services are easier and faster to implement than an in-house system. SpamTrap can be up-and-running in a matter of hours for example. It does not require modifications to your internal network or email server settings. There is no downtime in receiving or sending emails.

Managed services also provide an organization with centralized maintenance. Desktop software installed on individual computers may intuitively seems like a good solution. But there is also the issue of keeping each copy properly updated, and ensuring that each employee use it faithfully so as not to expose another employee to unwanted adult content.

By using SpamTrap, an organization essentially acquires our vast knowledge in this area at the fraction of the cost of an in-house solution. New types of spam and viruses appear everyday. It takes considerable resources to research and continually update an effective system. SpamTrap's low monthly fee includes around the clock updates of its spam and virus filters.

As an added bonus, SpamTrap increases email reliability. SpamTrap servers can serve as backups when your email server is down due to technical problems, routine maintenance or network outage. The SpamTrap servers will store your emails for up to 5 days. Once your email server is back online, the SpamTrap servers will automatically transfer the messages to your email server. All this happens behind the scenes.

Highly Effective
Stops 95% to 99% of all spam.
SpamTrap analyzes each email sent to your email server by putting it through a series of "filters". These "filters" check different aspects of the email to determine if it is spam. Once a spam email is identified, it is handled by your choice of one of three 'actions' or disposition methods discussed below.

Although SpamTrap intercepts and analyzes each of your emails, it requires no modification of your current email server or email software. SpamTrap servers simply act as a gatekeeper between the Internet and your email server. After scanning and filtering each email, SpamTrap then forwards legitimate emails to you immediately, and disposes of the spam as you choose. The whole process happens behind the scenes, is transparent to the users, and only takes about 1 second per email.

The effectiveness of SpamTrap lies in the "filters" it uses and the fact that we can tune and customize filters for each customer's specific problem if needed.

Real-Time Black Lists: Servers that send out spam are constantly identified by the antispam community and listed in one or more publicly available Real-Time Black Lists. (note: a black listed server can also be removed from the list if it no longer sends spam or it's falsely listed.)

These black lists are updated daily, and some updated even hourly. Each Real-Time Black List may use different criteria in determining if a server should be blacklisted. Therefore, these lists are overlapping but different.

To save time and expense, many antispam systems rely on only one or two Real-Time Black Lists, SpamTrap uses 8 different black lists which greatly increases its effectiveness. All of the black lists are carefully chosen to minimize the risk of falsely blocking legitimate emails.

Global White List: Reputable and legitimate companies could be blacklisted for various reasons. To further decrease the risk of blocking legitimate emails, we have created and maintain a Global White List that serves as an umbrella for all users.

Country Specific Filters: A large percentage of spam can be traced back to servers located in several countries. If you don't do business in these countries, blocking emails from the entire country will cut down the amount of spam. Even if you have important contacts in these countries, you can still block the entire country but include your contacts on your Custom White List.

URL/Phone Filtering: Spammers often include in their emails a web address they want people to click or a phone number they want you to call. We have accumulated a database of such web addresses and phone numbers. We actively collect spam emails and analyze them to determine if the web address or phone number should be included in the database.

Content Filtering: Many antispam services use content filtering based on words or phrases. They are error-prone and likely to block legitimate emails. The SpamTrap content filter; however, uses long, distinctive phrases that are very unlikely to be present in legitimate emails. Here are some examples of the phrases:

We GUARANTEE that You make at least $5000 per month.
Learn how to double your money every 6 months
OUR DOCTORS WILL WRITE YOU A PRESCRIPTION FOR FREE!

These phrases are maintained in a proprietary database and are updated by continual analysis of spam emails.

Aggressive Filtering System
Unlike SpamAssassin^TM which is widely used by ISPs and is regarded by some as one of the best content based antispam filtering package, our aggressive filtering mode uses clearly defined rules instead of weighted metrics. However, false positives may increase in Aggressive Filtering mode. Consequently, it is not enabled by default. If our other methods are not blocking enough spam for you, you can easily enable Aggressive Filtering mode for your account; however, most of our clients achieve 98% spam blocking without it.

Customized Black Lists, White Lists, and Content Filters: These are powerful features to fine-tune the performance of SpamTrap. Every organization is different and therefore has its own special needs. We can create Custom Black Lists and White Lists to selectively block or allow emails sent to you based on IP addresses, email addresses, or domains. Custom Content filters can also be created for your account.

With this multi-stage process, the default settings alone in SpamTrap often stop 95% or more of all spam! The customizable features provide effective tools for problem situations. Compared to most other antispam services, which only block 50% - 75% of spam, SpamTrap is highly effective.

Low False Positive Rate
Never lose legitimate emails.
One of our top priorities is to ensure users do not lose any legitimate emails. Despite every measure we take, there is still a small chance (<0.1%) a legitimate email will be incorrectly identified as spam, especially when the filters are set in aggressive mode. However, with SpamTrap's 'Tagging' and 'Fowarding' features you will never lose a legitimate email. Here's why:

Step One: Sophisticated Phrases
SpamTrap's content filtering uses long phrases to identify spam messages. Many similar systems only use certain words or simple phrases. Unsophisticated blocking based on content is problematic and is easy to be circumvented by spammers. For example, spam emails soliciting credit card applications are widespread. An unsophisticated approach would be to block all emails that contain the word "credit card". As a result, an email sent to a customer requesting updated credit card information would get incorrectly identified as spam. With SpamTrap this won't happen because of the long, sophisticated phrases used in the content filters.

Step Two: Custom White Lists
SpamTrap allows you to build your own white list. Messages matching the criteria on your white list will not be blocked. A White List is especially useful to selectively receive emails from a blocked domain or country.

Step Three: 'Tagging' and 'Fowarding'
Even in cases where SpamTrap may incorrectly identify a legitimate email as spam, you have 2 options for disposition that ensure you won't lose it:

Tagging: When SpamTrap identifies a spam email, it tags it by adding the word "z-spam" to the Subject line. Then the spam is sent to the recipient along with the legitimate emails. This way each recipient can easily sort their emails by Subject, and do with them what they wish.

Forwarding: Maybe you prefer your employees not to have access to spam at all as is the case with the 'tagging' action above. In this case, you can have all emails identified as spam sent to a single email address for archiving, periodic review, and disposition as you wish.

Flexible
Fine-tunable to make it work best for you.
Flexibility is a distinguishing feature of SpamTrap. We can fine tune the performance of SpamTrap for your account by using different filter settings and creating customized Black Lists, White Lists, and Content Filters. The ability to customize is vital for SpamTrap to meet the ever changing needs of various organizations.

Filter Settings: Depending on the amount of spam you receive and your priority, you can choose a more aggressive or a less aggressive antispam mode. With the more aggressive mode, more filters will be used and more spam will be blocked. However, the risk of blocking a legitimate email could increase slightly in aggressive mode. If your priority is to have every possible legitimate email delivered to you timely, you may want to choose a less aggressive mode, in which fewer filters will be used. We usually recommend users to use the default setting for at least 2 weeks before considering any changes.

Custom Black List: In addition to the Real-Time Black Lists maintained by antispam organizations, we can create a custom black list for your account. For example, you may find it's necessary to put an organization on your black list because it's impossible to get off its mailing list. Your black list can include IP addresses, email addresses, and content.

Custom White List: You can create your own white list to include all the important contacts, even if they may come from blocked countries or IP addresses. Like your black list, your white list can include IP addresses, email addresses, and domains. For example, if you have selected to block emails from Brazil, but you have a customer there, we can add their address to your White List.

Custom Content Filter: In cases where more aggressive solutions are needed, we can even create a customized Content Filter for your account. For example, if you want to forward or delete all emails that contain the words "inkjet cartridge", we can create a special filter for your account to do this.

Three Options to Dispose of Detected Spam

1. Server-Side Deletion: Spam can be deleted at the server. This is the recommend option for the URL/Phone filter as it is highly unlikely this filter will hit on a legitimate email.
   
2. Forwarding: Spam can be forwarded to a special email box (e.g. spam@yourdomain.com) for further inspection. This option is useful during the initial stage when you monitor the spam that is detected and the rate of false positives. It is also recommended if you have any concerns about employees being subjected to pornographic spam.
3. Tagging: Spam can be tagged at the Subject line, and then sent to the recipient. This option should be used by users who absolutely need to retain every possible legitimate email. The recipient can then sort the email by the subject line or create a mail rule to automatically move the tagged emails into a different folder. We'll be happy to help you set this up.

Scalable
Suitable for one user or hundreds of users.
SpamTrap can be used by one user at a single domain or by hundreds of users and multiple domains. It is economically priced to be affordable for a single user or a large organization. The cost of SpamTrap is primarily determined by bandwidth usage. Once a domain name is set up to use SpamTrap, adding or deleting users is virtually automatic, as long as the number of users remains within your service level. Upgrading to another service level is as easy as sending an email.

Easy to Use
Nothing to learn and nothing to maintain.
SpamTrap is easy to use. It works behind the scenes 24/7. End users do not need any technical knowledge at all to use SpamTrap. There is essentially no learning curve because there is nothing to learn. Since all spam and virus filter updates are performed on the server, end users are freed from maintenance tasks.

SpamTrap service comes with full telephone, web and email support. Our friendly and knowledgeable support staff will assist you in getting the most out of SpamTrap.

Commercial Virus Detection
Optional virus scan prevents email viruses.
In addition to spam filtering, SpamTrap can provide virus scanning at additional cost. SpamTrap uses a commercial grade antivirus engine from Frisk Software International. The company's antivirus products are highly rated by Virus Bulletin (http://www.virusbtn.com/), an independent antivirus advisory web site. The virus data files are updated hourly to include signatures of newly discovered viruses.

SpamTrap Anti-Virus will scan email attachments (up to 5 MB), including zip files, for viruses. It will remove infected attachments and add a concise report of the scanning to the bottom of the email.

Please note that SpamTrap Anti-Virus can only remove viruses that are transmitted by emails. Viruses can also be transmitted by other channels, like diskettes, web sites, file sharing, etc. SpamTrap Anti-Virus will NOT be able to remove viruses from these sources. Therefore, we recommend you take additional antivirus measures to prevent viruses from sources other than emails.