Stop Spam Before It Hits Your Inbox
Spam isn't just annoying — it's the entry point for most phishing and ransomware attacks. Here's how serious spam filtering actually works, and what we use for our own customers.
Why mailbox-level filtering isn't enough
The "Junk" folder in Outlook or Gmail catches spam after it's already been delivered to your server. The message took bandwidth, sat in your inbox briefly, and now lives in a folder where one bad click on a "Not junk" button puts it back in front of you. The good filters stop spam before it ever reaches your mailbox.
How SMTP-level filtering works
Email arrives at your domain via DNS records called MX records. SMTP-level filtering points your MX records at the filter first — the filter inspects every incoming message, drops the obvious junk, quarantines the suspect ones, and only forwards clean mail to your real mail server. You get a daily digest of what was held; if something legitimate got caught, you release it with one click.
What we use
We run our own customer mail through MX GuardDog — both ccp.email and ccp.com are protected by it. The free tier is sufficient for almost any small business, there's no software to install on your computer, and the filter learns from what you mark as junk over time.
What it catches
- Bulk spam and unwanted marketing
- Phishing emails impersonating banks, shipping companies, Microsoft, etc.
- Spoofed senders (mail claiming to be from you, sent to you)
- Common malware attachment patterns (.zip with .exe inside, suspicious .docm macros)
Want help setting it up?
If you're a Spritz hosting or managed-care customer, this is included — we'll handle the MX record changes for you. If you're not a customer but want it set up on your domain, get in touch and we'll quote a one-time setup.