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TMDA Spam Control - Say goodbye to spam!

The system is called TMDA and is also called a "challenge/response" system. If you've ever subscribed to a mailing list before, you probably already know how this works.

Let's say your friend from work wants to send you an email. He's never emailed you before. When he sends you a message, he will get a email sent back to him immediately from the server. This message is called the "challenge". All he has to do is hit "Reply" and "Send" and the server has now verified that he is an actual person and not a spammer trying to send junk. His reply is called the "response". This proves that he is real, and the message is delivered to your inbox.

Because your friend replied to the email successfully, he has also been added to your "whitelist". This is your list of people (kept on the server) who are approved to send you email without being challenged. From now on, when your friend from work sends you a message, he doesn't receive challenges because he's already on your whitelist.

People added to your whitelist are never challenged. So you can edit your whitelist on the server and add friends, family, and anyone else you don't want to receive challenges. People you add to your blacklist cannot send you mail at all. So if somebody is causing you grief, you can block them forever.

So how does this control spam? Spammers typically send out thousands of messages every minute, so they aren't bothering to look at what is rejected or bounced. Usually the return address they put is fake anyhow, so normally your challenges will not even be delivered to an actual human. This method is a little more work for the sender, but your daily spam will drop to zero! In some cases, people have reported no spam in several months!

There is also a server-side utility to view the messages people have been trying to send you but simply didn't respond to the challenges. This way, you don't lose a single piece of mail!

If you have any questions, just contact support, or check out the TMDA FAQ.