Spam filters take out legitimate emails

AT&T WorldNet this week activated a risky spam-filtering technique which it shortly had to defuse after subscribers discovered they were losing legitimate email.

Late Wednesday night, the US ISP instituted a new junk email filtering rule in an attempt to halt an ever-rising tide of unsolicited commercial messages to its subscribers. But because of the unreliable nature of the technique, some messages from friends and colleagues to AT&T subscribers were never delivered, without either sender or recipient being notified of the missed message.

Janet Wyles, an AT&T WorldNet spokeswoman, said: "While we were attempting to do good... we realised that legitimate emails were being rejected, so we removed that filtering rule."

She added that the filter was removed 24 hours after it was implemented, but the company plans to reinstate it after some kinks are ironed out.

AT&T notified its subscribers of the problem by posting a notice on its website. The company plans to email customers as well.