Spam & Virus Protection FAQs

What is spam?

Spam means unsolicited email messages that are delivered to your mailbox and are often for promotional or advertising purposes.

Why do I get spam?

Spam is sent for the many of the same reasons you get junk mail in your letterbox - people are trying to sell you things or get a response from you. Email is cheaper to send, so you get even more of it.

How did my email address get on a spam list?

Mailing lists are obtained by the senders of spam in a variety of ways, including scanning online forums, searching the internet for addresses, buying lists and even just guessing email addresses at random. If you use email, you are also likely to get spam.

What do I need to do to sign-up for Spam or Virus protection?

All TelstraClear internet customers automatically receive Spam and Virus protection.

I just received some spam, how did it get through?

Most spam can be identified and blocked from details included with the email known as the “header” or in the content of the email itself. However, spammers are always changing their techniques to disguise spam as legitimate email or newsletters, which makes identification of spam increasingly difficult.

What do I see when Spam and Virus protection is enabled?

Spam:
If you receive a message that has been identified by our solution as spam, then the spam message will be sidelined to your Spam Folder. You can access the Spam Folder at webmail.co.nz or if you have IMAP enabled, then you will be able to see the Spam Folder in your IMAP email software. 

Virus:
If any of your emails are cleaned by our virus protection, a virus notification message will appear at the bottom of the affected email. This means that for emails you send, the recipient of that email will receive the virus notification message. As the sender of that email, you will not receive a virus notification message.

When is my email checked to see whether it is spam or not?

When an email is received by TelstraClear, it is immediately checked to see if it is spam. If a positive result is obtained then the email is sidelined into your Spam Folder.

When is my email checked for viruses?

When an email is received by TelstraClear, it is immediately checked to see if it contains a virus. If a positive result is obtained then an attempt is made to clean the virus from the message.

Is outgoing email scanned for viruses as well?

All outgoing email will be scanned for viruses. This is done to reduce the possibility of viruses spreading further and to ensure that we are "good Internet citizens".

NOTE: If an outbound email contains a virus it will be cleaned and then sent, but the copy that gets stored in the 'Sent Items' folder will still contain the virus. If the virus cannot be cleaned, the attachment containing the virus will be deleted.

Can I have virus protection without spam protection?

Yes, it is possible to have virus protection without spam protection and vice versa.

Do I still need my desktop anti-virus software?

TelstraClear strongly recommends that you have your own internet security software installed on your computer and you keep it updated. TelstraClear virus protection will only intercept email based viruses. Viruses can also be received from browsing the internet, transferring files, from CD’s or floppy disk etc.

What happens to spam in the Spam Folder? What happens if I delete that folder?

All email in the Spam Folder that is older than 3 days will be automatically deleted. If you wish to keep a message in your Spam Folder you must move it to another folder. If you delete the Spam Folder, the next time we detect a spam message/email, the folder will be recreated automatically.

Is your Spam Folder counted in your mail quota?

Yes it is, however email in the Spam Folder that is older than 3 days will be automatically deleted.

You can manually delete the messages in your Spam Folder so that you keep your mailbox quota under control. You can do this by logging into WebMail or if you have IMAP enabled, you can do this with your IMAP email software.

Can I be sure that TelstraClear will not delete valid messages?

Spam:
Spam messages are sidelined into the Spam Folder. It is only deleted from your Spam Folder once it is older than 3 days. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee that valid email will never be considered spam and also sidelined. However it is estimated that only one email in every one million emails is incorrectly classified as spam, so the chances are low.

Virus:
Emails containing attachments with viruses will not be deleted, however in certain circumstances the virus-ridden attachment may be deleted. If an email contains an attachment that cannot be cleaned, the body text of that message will be delivered to the your inbox with a note advising you that the attachment could not be cleaned, and has therefore been deleted.

Will Spam and Virus protection apply to all email addresses on my account?

TelstraClear Spam and Virus filtering is performed on a per mailbox basis. Mail delivered to all TelstraClear mailboxes is protected.

What if a virus gets through?

TelstraClear cannot guarantee that virus protection will detect all viruses that you may receive or send by email. A virus transmitted by email may not be detected by our virus protection service for a number of reasons including the fact that the virus is very new and we have not received identification of that virus.

• FAQs