Many ISP's filter email without the knowledge or consent of their clients.

Recent surveys show that 42% of the people ARE NOT receiving the genuine emails and newsletters that they requested.

Increasingly, ISPs are using filtering systems to try and keep Spam out of customers' inboxes.

Being automated, these filters are not perfect. Many authentic emails get caught in these filters and you have no way of knowing which of your emails are filtered.

The most common and easy solution to ensure receipt of your e-mails are given below.

HOTMAIL

To 'Safe List' an email address in hotmail:

  • Choose the 'Options' tab from the top
  • Select 'Safe List' ( Given under the head -Junk E-Mail Protection-)
  • Now type both this email address: sales@irish-lotto.com
  • Now choose 'Add'
  • Online Help for Hotmail:
    http://help.msn.com/!data/en_us/data/MSN_Hotmail_PIMv9.its51/$content$/PIM_PROC_SAFELIST.HTM

    AOL 7, 8

    Place an email address in your AOL 'Address Book'. Here's how:

    • Go to Keyword Mail Controls
    • Select the screen name to which the newsletter is sent (e.g. "Irish draw results")
    • Now choose 'Customize Mail Controls' For This Screen Name
    • For AOL 7.0, include in the section, "exclusion and inclusion parameters", the domains from which the email is sent: irish-lotto.com
    • For AOL 8.0, choose "Allow mail from AOL Members and addresses listed"
    • Type: irish-lotto.com
    • Click Add.
    • Choose "Ok" displayed at the bottom.
    AOL 9.0

    The best way to ensure that you will receive your results email is to place our email address (sales@irish-lotto.com) in your "Person I know" buddy list. All mail you receive from this email address will pass through the filters. So, make sure that when you join for a newsletter, it is ADDED to your buddy list.

    Yahoo

    Yahoo mail uses combination of bulk mail folders and filters. If you are not receiving our e-mails, check your “Bulk Mail,” locate the filtered "Irish draw results", and choose "this is not Spam," next to the "From" field.

    Or to create filter for your Irish draw results:

    In Yahoo mail, click the "Mail Options" link on the top-right navigation bar, and then choose "Filters" located on the left side of the page, under the Spam column.

    To create a new filter, click the "Add Filter" link on the Filters page.

    • Choose the field you want to match in the incoming message. For example, select the one of the following headers: From, To/Cc, Subject, or Body to match.
    • Choose the criterion by which you want a match to be made. For example: contains, ends with.
    • Enter the text string to compare. For example: @irish-lotto.com
    • Choose the destination folder to which you would like the message delivered. For example: Results. Note you can create a folder by selecting [new folder].
    • If you have more than one filter, you'll also see "up" and "down" arrows to the right of the filter list. Use these buttons to select the placement of your new filter within your existing sequence of filters. Filter order is important because Filter 1 will be the first filter applied to an incoming message, Filter 2 will be the next, and so on until a match is made or all filters are passed. If no filters match an incoming message, it will be delivered to your inbox.

    Be sure to click the "Add Filter" button to put your new filter into effect, after you've selected a folder in which to file the e-mail.

    Online Help for Yahoo Mail:
    http://help.yahoo.com/help/mail/manage/manage-06.html
    http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/index.html

    Outlook 2003
    Setting Junk E-Mail Filters in Outlook 2003

    In Outlook 2003, the Junk E-Mail Filter is turned on by default. The first time Outlook 2003 moves a message to the Junk E-mail folder, it will notify you with a dialog box.

    To change junk e-mail settings in Outlook 2003:

    1. On the Tools menu, select Options.
    2. In the Options dialog box, in the E-mail section, click Junk E-mail.
    3. Choose the level of junk e-mail message protection you want. Click OK.

    To add a sender to your Safe Senders List, Safe Recipients Lists, or Blocked Senders List:

    1. Right-click on a message from the sender.
    2. Point to Junk E-mail, and click either Add Sender to Safe Senders List, Add Sender to Blocked Senders List, or Add Recipient to Safe Recipients Lists.

    Outlook 2003 Online Help:
    http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/junkmail.mspx

    For Own Filter Software

    Many times the filter software installed in the computer is the culprit.

    Here's how to prevent it:
    Look for "Options" in the filter software that you have installed in your computer. Then give permissions for all emails from a particular email address or domain.

    Two Additional Tips To Prevent Loosing Important Emails

    Tip #1
    You may be currently receiving all your email messages without a hitch. But, it's still advisable to white-list and prevent future problems.

    Tip #2
    No matter what the email system you are currently using, add the email address of your opt-in Newsletters' to the 'Address Book' of your particular email system. Currently, white-listing is the ONLY way to ensure that you receive all your important emails. Do not ignore this important aspect of email communication.


    This is a message I sourced from a webmaster that was having problems getting inbound email to AOL Users!

    About three months ago I had an inquiry from a customer who had sent mail to a friend on AOL and they never seemed to get it. I had had no problems with AOL mail previous to this. I checked the SMTP logs and it always indicated a clean transaction with aol's mail servers. I provided the SMTP logs to the client and told her to get her friend on AOL to get in touch with AOL customer service and ask what happens to her mail. She did...they blamed it on all sorts of unidentified things...never solved the problem...never followed up.

    About ten days ago another client indicated to me they didn't think their mail was getting through to two accounts. I then sent an alert to all MY clients asking them if they had correspondents on AOL and was the mail getting to them. I was a little concerned it might be a problem with me.

    Much to my surprise it seemed that some was getting through and some was not. The SMTP logs on our side always indicated a clean transaction with a confirming sent. I was a little alarmed...what the hell was going on? Before taking the matter further I contacted an expert to ask if indeed the SMTP logs indicate "sent" that the mail was sent to the receiving SMTP server. The expert said yes.

    I then decided to get in touch with AOL, thoroughly satisfied I was holding up my end of the bargain in the mail transaction. Well AOL's customer service is useless as we all know....One call to talk with a supervisor resulted in the statement "our system is operating normally"...implied something is wrong with you!

    I looked up the administrative contact off the internic registration of AOL at www.networksolutions.com whois. I called that number and got an answering machine ...and surprise the first two selections of the voice mail dealt with "are you having problems getting mail into AOL's system" I left a message. I had a call back from a bright woman ********** about 2 hours later. She identified herself as one of 3 technical leads in email.

    The first thing she did was to verify there was no open relay on my SMTP server as she said they won't deal with anyone who has open relays. I emailed her the logs of the "disappearing" mail as we spoke plus I tried to send a message to her on aol.com and aol.net. The latter she received. Mail addressed to her at aol.com did not get through. She said she would call me back. Indeed she was true to her word and called back a couple of hours later. How long have you had that ip? 8 months I responded.

    Well the upshot and confession from her was this. AOL unilaterally blocks WITHOUT ANY NOTICE whole ip address blocks that they may or may not have associated with spamming in the past. There is absolutely no way you would know this or be able to know if you are on those blocked ip blocks. Since we do not spam or allow our clients to spam I was very surprised that ONE ip address would be blocked without any notice just because I fell into a BLOCK that others might have used for spamming.

    Moreover I expressed my amazement that the mail was not bounced but simply goes down a black hole with the sender outside AOL's system and the receiver ( a customer of AOL) none the wiser that their mail was being killed. She solved the issue very quickly for my system once she released the block. HOWEVER, I indicated to her that what AOL was doing in effect was unilaterally denying service to their own customers. I had clients who had valid mail for AOL users and they weren't getting it. I indicated to her that it was incredible that AOL did not bounce the messages to a blocked ip address...she indicated they did not do this because the spammers were so smart that if they bounced the spammers would take another track immediately. In other words if the AOL customer had the misfortune to have a correspondent on a system such as mine that somehow got associated with a spamming block, then that AOL customer HAD NO IDEA that mail destined for him was "radically excised" as she put it, even though it was valid and good mail.

    I have thought about this for 5 days. The implications are enormous. Ethical? Legal? AOL has implicit in its customer relationship a duty to deliver mail to and from that customer and to notify that customer if there is a possibility he might not get all his mail and that AOL does indeed destroy some mail unilaterally.

    I don't think this is very ethical and I'm not even sure if it is LEGAL. I know I take my responsibility in handling my customers' mail in a very serious light and would never consider destroying mail without letting that customer know I was doing it. ...and in fact if I unilaterally destroyed mail from a sender to a recipient on my system with complete knowledge I was doing so, I'm pretty damn sure my customer could sue me to the ends of the earth. Given AOL's size and apparent dominance we all face the possibility they may even attempt to close out small isps from their system. What was going on for me, is going on for others I'm sure. It may be a permanent block, an intermittent block (like me) or a random block but as they say a block is a block.

    If people cannot know that their ip's are blocked in certain systems and there is no easy method of verifying you are blocked in a system then the entire email system is threatened.

    We all know the problem with spam. We all recognize it. But most of us also know that the real problem with spam comes from systems that are poorly managed and attended. Smaller isps identify and kill spammers quickly (at least I do)...I do allow responsible mass mailings to verified addresses for businesses using my system but an individual who wants to send out 10 million get rich quick schemes gets no leeway from me. It is ironic that a good deal of the incoming spam I deal with originates out of mass mailings in AOL!

    The real culprits in this are more senior people in AOL who have put in place these policies to block and NOT TO DISCLOSE and its those guys watching their stock instead of their customers that get me riled.