As spammers identify new tricks for sneaking their junk past software sentinels, service providers’ technical parries could put even more legitimate mail at risk.

After sending an email overseas, Ashley Friedlein had yet to receive a response until he learned through a check up phone call that his email had never been received. With todays technology many email receipents have learned that mail is not getting through to them while they are still receiving spam mail.

Spam and spam-fighting have “in some cases eroded the reliability of the mail system,” said Eric Allman