AOL Spam Filtering Technology
America Online (AOL) is one of the major mail administrators in the internet industry. AOL like other mail administrators provides a quality service in terms of its mailing procedures and formats. Optimizations of emails as well as spam filtering are also part of AOLs service. Indeed AOL makes a clear runway for their users emails.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) has been adopted by AOL to fight spam. SPF doesnt literally block spam unlike spam filters and spam busters. What an SPF does is that, it keeps the real addresses from being forged, and thus prevent misdirected emails (bounced emails) on legitimate senders protected return path. Spammers forge addresses to hide their true identity and as well prevent bounced emails from their inboxes. Through SPF user can know if the senders address is authentic or fake.
Furthermore, SPF let the users specify their sending policy. Whenever a policy is made by a user, the domain owner publishes this policy. And when someones mail sever receives a message suggesting to came from that domain, that recipient sever can check if indeed the message is legitimate by checking the published stated policy. With this, proper assessment of emails can be made. Once a message is proved fake, then it can be marked as unwanted or unsolicited.
