Create New E-mail Accounts
SVBI! allows the creation of unlimited e-mail accounts.
To create a new e-mail account, simply enter any valid word or name into the Enter Account field. The "@your-sbi-domain.com" part is automatically added after that term to form your new e-mail account.
Then click into any, all, or none of the following checkboxes...
1) Wormhole?
2) Show in WebMail
3) Set as Default
Wormhole
If you leave this unchecked, this e-mail account is a "regular" e-mail account.
Checking this option turns this e-mail account into a "Wormhole" Account. What's so special about an account while it's a "Wormhole"? Here's what...
The "from/reply-to" e-mail address of any e-mail that is sent to a Wormhole e-mail account is automatically added to your whitelist. After a certain number of days (set by you, from 5-60 days or "Permanent"), it reverts to a "regular" e-mail account.
Click here for general information about Wormholes.
This is a powerful feature. It allows "new (even unknown!) friends and associates" to get onto your whitelist with "no muss, no fuss." Let's use an example to clarify...
Suppose you make a purchase from Amazon.com. You're aware that Amazon will send you a receipt, then a confirmation of shipping, etc. However, if you purchase using a regular e-mail account, the Amazon autoresponder will send to that address. Since Amazon's e-mail address is not yet whitelisted with you, SVBI! will refuse the receipt and bounce it back with your Challenge-Response to whitelist.
Unfortunately, Amazon does not have a human there to take care of trivial things like handling the Challenge-Response. So you will not receive your receipt.
If you knew what address they used to mail customers, you could, of course, simply whitelist that address. But you don't know it. As a matter of fact, Amazon has a very elaborate post-sales e-mail system...
- their confirmation e-mail comes immediately, but you don't know "what-address@amazon.com"
- their shipping notice comes within a day to a few weeks, from a different-address@amazon.com
- they may send a "shipment delayed" notice from yet another address 6 weeks later from yet-another-address@amazon.com.
What to do? You can't whitelist Amazon's entire domain -- too many spammers forge spam from a "@amazon.com" to fool you into opening e-mail. So that's no good.
To side-step this issue, create a Wormhole e-mail account. A Wormhole Account is best used when you're expecting a response from an automated service, but are unaware of the exact address from which it will be sent. SVBI! automatically whitelists the addresses of everyone who sends e-mail to an OPEN Wormhole Account.
So to set up a Wormhole Account (for this Amazon example)...
- check the Wormhole? checkbox
- choose "Open for 60 days" from the "Choose duration" drop-down menu (offers a choice ranging from 5 to 60 days, or "Permanent")
- enter an address that spammers won't guess but that you can readily identify and remember the purpose.
For example, you enter "amazon-fulfillment-wormhole" into the text box so that the entire Wormhole Account is "amazon-fulfillment-wormhole@your-sbi-domain.com." There is not much chance of spammers guessing that (very important!). And when you see this address as the "To address" of an inbound e-mail or when you're reviewing the origins of your whitelist, you'll immediately remember the purpose of that Wormhole Account ("way back" when you created it!).
All set? Great! Click on the Create New Accounts button. Your new account will be ready to use in about an hour. Once it is...
You're ready to order from Amazon. You only have to do this once, remember -- once Amazon's fulfillment addresses are whitelisted, you are all set for future orders, too. So let's order...
When you order, provide your Wormhole Account e-mail address. All of Amazon's post-order e-mails will reach you and SVBI! will automatically whitelist their "from" addresses. After 60 days, when the Wormhole has closed, those whitelisted addresses will STILL be able to send mail that reaches you. But all other e-mail to that ex-Wormhole Account will be refused by SVBI!.
Why leave it open for 60 days? Why not less?
Good question! In Amazon's case, it may take 6-8 weeks before you see one of those "delayed shipment" e-mails. So set the Wormhole duration to 60 days -- that will cover all possible "from addresses" in post-order e-mails from Amazon.
Why set the Wormhole to 60 days and not to "Permanent?"
Even better question! The answer lies in...
The First Wormhole Rule of Thumb
Leave the Wormhole open for as few days as possible. For example, if you're subscribing to an e-zine from a smaller, unknown company, you'll get your "confirm opt-in" e-mail within minutes and your first issue within a week or two. So choose "Open for 15 days" in the "Choose duration" drop-down menu (under the Wormhole checkbox).
Since this zine subscription is a "riskier" situation, and since the subscription and receipt-of-first-issue process is short, close the Wormhole earlier to decrease the chances that a spammer may get onto your whitelist through the Wormhole while it remains open.
Permanent Wormholes
Permanent Wormholes are wonderful things. But they must be used very carefully and only in certain types of situations where you need to keep a Wormhole open indefinitely. Since it remains open, you must be especially careful that it does not fall into spammers' hands.
Use a Permanent Wormhole when you want to receive repeated e-mails from different sources for an indefinite period of time. For example...
- if you accept PayPal payments (see the important note about PayPal, below)
- on business cards -- anyone who e-mails the address on your card gets whitelisted!
And that brings us to...
The Second Wormhole Rule of Thumb
Create a new Permanent Wormhole Account for each new situation. If you use one Wormhole Account to cover everything, you'd have no way to trace how a spammer got your Wormhole Account. That would cause you some major inconvenience.
By using one account for each specific situation, you can figure out how spammers discovered you simply by reviewing the origins of your whitelist display.
Remember...
The longer you leave a Wormhole open, the more likely spammers are to discover it. Even if you make an unguessable address each time, what if a company "rents" or "licenses" its address list to a third party (who ever reads the small print of what they may do with the addresses?). Sooner or later, and it may take years if you protect an e-mail account well, spammers may discover an e-mail account.
And once one spammer has it, that address spreads like wildfire through "SpamVille."
So keep a Wormhole open as short as possible. And protect Permanent Wormholes with your life!
That brings up another question...
When should you shut down a Permanent Wormhole?
As soon as you start getting spam, shut it down. If you protect it well, that should take years. But when it does happen, shut it down and open one to replace it.
What about all those addresses that have been whitelisted through that Wormhole?
They are automatically whitelisted for ALL your e-mail accounts. So it's a good idea, at the time they whitelist through the Wormhole, to let them know that they can/should reach you through a regular e-mail account (include the most appropriate one in your sig file). Do this before you ever have to shut down a Permanent Wormhole. (It could be a great way to PREsell SBI! and earn a commission.)
Just to be thorough, if you ever have to shut down a Permanent Wormhole, you can review your whitelist to see which addresses were whitelisted via a particular Permanent Wormhole Account. Inform those people to reach you through a regular e-mail account (provide whichever is most appropriate for that group). Also...
Remove the spammer's e-mail address from your whitelist. Bottom line...
Damage fixed!
Avoid the inconvenience -- treat Permanent Wormholes with great respect. You do not spammers to discover them.
SBIers who are sloppy with the use of Wormholes (especially Permanent Wormholes) and who generate a lot of spam because of it, AND who use the redirect function to send that spam somewhere else, will be restricted to redirecting to a spamwashing service, Pobox.com (click here for more information).
So...
1) Never post a Wormhole online to any Web page (not even one behind a password).
2) Use Wormholes only offline (ex., business cards), or to deal with trusted online third parties (ex., ordering from Amazon).
3) Create a new Wormhole for each situation (to give you damage-control and traceability).
4) Make it an address that spammers would not "dictionary attack"/guess at.
Important Note About PayPal & Wormholes
When PayPal pays you, it sends a confirming e-mail ("Notification of payment received"). But it sends it from the address of your customer, who might NOT be in your whitelist (ex., if your customer bought an e-good from a third party service like ClickBank). So...
Create a Permanent Wormhole for PayPal. You give PayPal THAT address. All e-mail to that address becomes whitelisted automatically, including all customers who pay you through PayPal. It's critical to create an address that spammers won't guess at, and to protect that address from "getting out," or you may have to delete that Wormhole and start a new one for PayPal (inform all customers, as outlined above, if that happens).
Tip
- You cannot add a wormhole to an existing e-mail account. If you decide that you'd like a certain account to have a wormhole, delete that account and create it again, giving it the exact same name. Before you build it, add a check to the Wormhole? checkbox and choose the length of time.
Show in WebMail
Select this option if you would like the ability to send e-mail from this e-mail account when you are composing a new message in WebMail. This e-mail account will then show in the "From" drop-down menu each time you create a new message to send.
Set as Default
Only one e-mail account can be set as the "default" address in the "From" drop-down menu (i.e., this account is automatically chosen to appear) when you create a new message to send.
Use this section to set the e-mail account that you use most often when creating new messages. You can, of course, change the "From" address to any of the other accounts that you chose (through the "Show In WebMail" option above) to display in that drop-down.
Please note the small "Click here to add more" link. Use it to add as many additional e-mail accounts as you like before you click on the Create New Accounts button.
When you're all done, click the Create New Accounts button to add your new e-mail accounts. Add as many as you like, but only as many as you need (the more you add, the more spammers may probe).