Vodafone K.K.’s Anti-Spam Results

Vodafone K.K. announced its findings today from a December 2005 survey conducted among Vodafone K.K. customers on the effectiveness of anti-spam measures. The results indicated that over 90% of customers using the URL link mail blocking function first introduced in March 2005 experienced a decrease in the number of spam mails received. In addition, approximately 80% of customers using the function said spam mails fell to a level of 0 or 1 per day. 

By employing NEC Corporation?s mail filtering system that adopts NetSTAR Inc.?s URL database, the URL link mail blocking function rejects e-mails sent via the internet containing URL links that match specific categories registered in the database, such as dating and adult sites.

The survey results showed that 43% of customers are aware of the URL link mail blocking function, and a minority have changed their original default setting of ?Accept all mails? to ?Refuse all mails with URL links?, or ?Refuse mails with specified URL links?.

The survey also shows that customers can successfully reduce spam and use the Vodafone live! mail service more comfortably by using the URL link mail blocking function. To decrease the number of spam mails entering Vodafone K.K.?s mail servers and educate more customers about highly effective anti-spam measures like the URL link mail and spoof mail blocking functions, Vodafone K.K. will promote anti-spam measures at all customer touch points, including Vodafone shops, catalogues, websites and billing enclosures.

Vodafone K.K. will use the results of the survey to further step up its efforts to combat spam and continue to work in association with the Japan E-mail Anti-Abuse Group (JEAG*).

*JEAG is a working group comprised of Japan?s major internet service providers and mobile communication operators formed in March 2005 to examine and implement technological countermeasures against e-mail abuse.

Via: Vodafone PR [.PDF in English]