Microsoft's push towards preventing email forgery By Peter M. Abraham June 2005 Just yesterday, June 23, 2005, CNET published a story that Microsoft enforces its anti-spam tech specifically in the area of "Emails sent to Hotmail accounts will be tagged as spam if they don't use Sender ID." The key elements of this important story is as follows: If you send email to a hotmail (something @ hotmail.com) email address, AND  your e-mail does not have a Sender ID, Microsoft wants to junk your message.   Critics say Sender ID, which includes technology developed by Microsoft, is not an accepted standard and has many shortcomings. Editor note:  The current leading technology is SPF followed by Domain Keys (which was developed by Yahoo).   Sender ID has not been a success because it is not very highly regarded,   "All domain holders and e-mail senders should be publishing SPF records and planning to do that now if they want to improve the legitimacy of their mail, plus protect their domain and consumers. What does the above mean in English? Starting in November 2005 email sent to hotmail.com must include either a sender ID or SPF record.  Failure to publish either will result in the email being tagged as SPAM and potentially blocked. While the trust of the article pushes "Sender ID," please note that Sender ID includes SPF.  So for at least the year 2005, if you publish an SPF record, you will be ok. Please take time to review Helping you to set up your SPF records to prevent email forgery to learn more about publishing your own SPF record or having us do it for you. Please contact our support department toll free at 1-888-887-6727 if you have any questions. Thank you.