Sender Score: Credit Scores for Emailers

Sender Score:  Credit Scores for Emailers

Yesterday, I wrote about email authentication, and why, although it's great, it won't stop spam without the emergence and scaling of accreditation and reputation systems. 

Today, Return Path has announced the beta launch of Sender Score, our new reputation management system.  Sender Score is a groundbreaking service that we've been working on for a long time here.  The best way to think about it (or the analog analog, as Brad might say) is as a FICO or credit score for email. 

We've gone out and compiled TONS of data about emailers, much as the credit bureaus do when they gather financial profile and transaction data about individuals and businesses.  But our data, when aggregated and modeled, represents an emailer's reputation -- are they a "good risk" to let into your email network, or are they a "bad risk" to be treated separately?

What kind of data?  It's the same data that ISPs and sys admins use to block and filter most emailers...variables such as complaint data, e-mail send volume, unknown user volume, security practices, identity stability, and unsubscribe functionality.  The system tracks 60 different data points and draws data from a diverse sample of more than 40 million email boxes.  The data comes from lots of different places, some from our own systems, and some from partner ISPs and other tech/filtering/data companies we've partnered with such as Cloudmark and Lashback.

This is powerful stuff.  The main thing we do with the data is provide it back to email marketers and publishers in a format that's easy to understand and act on.  It's like the free credit report many banks offer their customers so their customers can see themselves as potential creditors see them, then work to shore up the weak spots in their profile so they're more likely to get the next loan/mortgage/approval.

Sender Score rounds out our Delivery Assurance offerings by adding reputation management to accreditation, monitoring, and professional services offerings.  With authentication gaining steam out there as a backdrop to all of this...we're a lot closer to solving spam and false positives than we've ever been.

Comments

[Ron]

Now this is really interesting. I could be wrong, but is this similar (at least one component) to the rating system that eBay uses? If so, how do you prevent abuse? How will is reduce spam and how would a customer of yours use it?

[April Lorenzen]

Responding to Ron's question of are email reputation systems like the rating system eBay uses:

On eBay - each user is authenticated to a reasonable degree. To get an eBay account requires full name and street address, phone numbers, birthdate, and a working email address you confirm from. Future accesses are by username and password.

Thus tying a reputation to a specific user is a fairly reliable connection for eBay. And new users with no history don't get as much respect or trust as users with longevity and positive feedback.

With email however - there is no requirement for any sender to be authenticated. Senders can jump from server to server - even thousands of different servers in a day. Senders can also forge any domain name pretending it is theirs.

If eBay allowed this kind of behavior, it would be the equivalent of any user being able to bid or sell from anyone else's account, forge the name , every password would be valid for every account, collect other people's money or screw up other people's reputation by perpatrating fraud using their accounts.

While email authentication methods (DKIM, SPF, etc) are available - no one is required to use them, and spammers are just as free to use them as non-spammers.

Email reputation aggregators like Sender Score and the Outbound Index can do a pretty good job even without enforced email authentication. I just wanted to point out why a closed system like eBay is different.

[Chris Scanlon]

Thanks for this great post. You've got some really good info in your blog. If you get a chance, you can check out my blog on
{credit score} at http://www.creditscoreexpert4u.com.

Chris Scanlon
http://www.creditscoreexpert4u.com

[Lenno Cornish]

It seems really interesting. Moreover - i'li like to write a little note about your info in my own blog. Is it ok? anyway - you can come and see what it will look like:)

[Michelle Boudreau]

To be the member of eBay authentic use is confirmed with accounts full information with proper password and user name .