Answer:
Purchase Area Online has installed a powerful spam filtering system to help reduce the amount of junk email our members receive. This service is completely free to every PAOL member. Members can opt out of this service at anytime.

For answers to frequently-asked questions about our spam filtering, please click the links below.

What is spam?
Spam is a generic term for junk email. It's sometimes referred to as UCE, or Unsolicited Commercial Email, but the common definition of spam now includes non-commercial junk email, including things like chain letters, pyramid and get-rich-quick schemes and so on. Spam costs the sender very little to send but can carry costs for the recipients or the carriers.

Why do I get spam?
In the early days of the public Internet, some advertisers realized that by collecting email addresses from Usenet groups and other sources, they could inexpensively put together mailing lists for direct emails that would be delivered to large numbers of Internet users, much the same way direct mail sent through the postal service can blanket an area with items addressed to "Resident" or "Occupant". Later, email addresses were collected through online forms or registration pages and used in direct email lists.

Over time, spammers have grown increasingly creative in sending messages to multiple recipients, to the point now of creating lists of common usernames and sending to those names at any given ISP's domain, feeling confident that a good number of the messages will reach someone. That means that you're no longer safe from spam just because you don't give out your email address in forms on web sites or to anyone but friends.

How does our anti-spam system work?
Purchase Area Online uses a three-tiered system to filter spam for our members. By default, all filtering options are used, but members may opt out by visiting the Spam Filter Management section of "Member Services" and selecting the "Disable Filter" option.

Our system of filtering uses these methods to identify and remove junk email:

1. Open Relay Database Services
   Currently, one of the easiest way spammers distribute email is through the abuse of non-secure servers that allow anyone to send messages anywhere. These servers, more commonly know as "Open Relays" are often used by spammers because they can send their messages for free.

   For this reason we subscribe to DSBL (Distributed Server Boycott List), which lists known non-secure servers, and consequently reject mail from recipients using such servers. The exact list of servers changes as we are constantly reevaluating the quality of the services.

2. Brightmail Spam Filtering
   Considered the industry leader in progressive spam filtering, Brightmail uses a very sophisticated database structure to identify and filter spam messages.

   Using Brightmail's worldwide Probe Network, the system catches large amounts of possible spam from all over the Internet and forwards it to the Brightmail Logistics and Operations Center (BLOC) in real time. The BLOC Technicians work 24/7 to create spam-filtering rules to counter these spam attacks. The new rules are immediately sent directly to the Anti-Spam components on our email system, which uses them to filter out and store suspected spam, while allowing normal delivery of your legitimate messages.

   Brightmail's spam filtering methods are unique because only messages that have been identified and "tagged" by their technicians get blocked, with only a few very rare exceptions. This virtually guarantees that no legitimate email messages will be blocked by the Brightmail filter.

3. Spam Assassin Spam Filtering
   A sophisticated, open-source program made specifically to identify junk email, Spam Assassin uses industry-standard algorithms to identify spam and classify it. Messages receiving a certain score or higher in Spam Assassin's evaluation routines are blocked in similar fashion to those identified as spam by Brightmail.

How do I know what email has been filtered?
Messages filtered by Spam Assassin are still accessible to you, but won't show up in your email inbox. To check messages filtered by those programs, use our online spam-management interface. You can also choose to receive a daily or weekly digest of suspected spam messages filtered from your account (click here to configure).

IMPORTANT:
As we've increased our levels of spam blocking, some blocked messages havei,by default, become inaccessible through the spam-manager tool. Messages blocked because they originated from a server identified by DSBL as an open relay or becauase they were flagged by Brightmail will not show up in your spam digest or your spam-management list, nor will you receive any notification that such messages have been blocked. However, you may change this feature at any time by choosing the "Frontline Filtering" option located in the Spam Filter Management section of "Member Services".

We have found that several legitimate email lists and even some commercial services send mail from or through open relay servers that are blacklisted by these groups. If you find that expected, legitimate email messages are not getting through to you and are not listed in your spam-manager, it is likely this is the reason.

Should you choose, you can have this level of spam blocking removed from your account while leaving the Spam Assassin filters in place. However, we still consider this mail spam and will send it to your online spam-management interface where you can opt to receive the mail.

To opt out of DSBL blocking, please visit the Spam Filter Management section of "Member Services" and select the "Frontline Filtering" option.

What if I find a legitimate message in my filtered list?
If you believe a message in your filtered list to has been filtered in error, you may visit the Spam Filter Management section of "Member Services" and select the "Override List" option. With this tool, you have the ability to override spam filtering for specific email addresses and domains. Email from addresses and domains that you have designated will be allowed to pass directly to your inbox without being reviewed by the spam filter.

How do I turn off the spam filtering?
Should you desire to have all spam blocking stopped on your account, simply visit the Spam Filter Management section of "Member Services" and select the "Disable Filter" option.

What is an open mail relay?
An open mail relay occurs when a mail server processes a mail message where neither the sender nor the recipient is a local user. In other words, both the sender and the recipient of a message are outside the local domain (or rather, the local IP range, for the technically inclined). The mail server is an entirely unrelated third party to this transaction, therefore, the message really has no business passing through this server.

Servers configured as open relays are often used by spammers to send their mass emails without using their own resources and to make the messages' true point of origin more difficult to trace.

Will this system catch all my spam?
No spam-filtering system will block 100% of junk emails without also blocking much legitimate email. However, we have found that the combination of steps we've taken to reduce spam is having a noticeable impact on the amount of junk email our members receive.

Independent reviewers have rated Brightmail's system as the best at identifying and filtering spam messages. Combined with Spam Assassin, we feel our filters are as comprehensive as possible. However, as fast and comprehensive as it is at detecting and countering new spam attacks, some spam still may get through the net. However, most users have reported an immediate drastic decrease in the amount of spam cluttering their inbox. If you still receive a spam message please forward it to junk@purchasearea.net so new rules can be written to catch it.

Will anybody read my email?
Absolutely not. Nobody but you reads your email.

What do I have to do to get this service?
Not a thing. We now provide this service automatically to all members at no extra charge.

Why is spam called spam?
Here's the explanation, so you know we didn't make up the answer...
Why it's called spam.