VSO get rid of Over Working Spam Filters

Charity VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) has solved some major problems of spam filtering by switching suppliers. It has stopped the problem of blacklisting thus enabling VSO to communicate with offices all over the world.

According to the news by Vnunet.com on July 18, 2007, David Sims, VSO technical services manager, said that as many offices are situated in the rural parts of the world, email was the only way through which VSO works. The international development organization has volunteers working in almost 70 countries and they depend totally on email as a mode of communication. And restricting important mails and increasing spam volumes were disturbing their work.

As per the news of Computing.co.uk on July 18, 2007, Sims said that their work, such as running HIV and AIDS project in Southern Africa, indicates that important mails contain words which are often banned by spam filters.

Moreover, VSO's IT team was trying to achieve a balance between blocking important messages and effective spam filtering. They were taking the help of spam filters, which was managed internally. Though the company invest lot of time in administrating its own list of blocking, but did not include some words which results in deluge of spam.

Sims explained that by using the default settings, many important emails were restricted, for instance, business mails which come from Vietnam that referred to the national currency, the Dong, were restricted as they had some other meaning also. The idea of funding was banned as get-rich quick spam, as published by Vnunet.com on July 18, 2007.

Further, with a new office in the Pacific Island of Vanuatu, which is a primary source of global spam, VSO automatically blacklisted its sites through email monitoring services.

As per the news by Computing.co.uk on July 18, 2007, Sims said that from managing blacklists to checking the file of blocked emails for genuine messages and managing spam, the officials are working day and night just to keep the service going and it was unacceptable.

The charity has almost 500 professionals working in 34 countries from Africa to Asia, and from South America to the South Pacific. Volunteers are from different professionals, from teachers and accountants to social workers, farmers and health professionals.

Related article: Views on Astronomic phishing Growth

» SPAMfighter News - 7/30/2007