AT&T's spam filter 'too good'

AT&T Broadband's spam-blocking email filter is so good that it blocked notice of a rate increase.

A red-faced company spokesperson admitted that its mailshot had not got past the AT&T spam filters, and that customers had to read elsewhere about imminent price hikes of between eight and 15 per cent.

The company could not confirm how many customers had been affected, but The Seattle Times reported that a large percentage of AT&T's 64,000 users did not receive their email notification.

"If there is a silver lining, it appears that our spam filtering system works so well that it even deletes mass emails from our own company," the spokesperson said. "The filtering problem was detected after some test email messages were sent in a check of the system, and the notices will be resent."