Block lists stop messages from the blocked senders, bypassing IP-level filtering. Block lists are not applied to your MTA, but you can set up additional blocked or approved senders, or perform additional filtering at your MTA. The trade-off for bypassing IP filtering are the additional resources that are needed to process, filter, and store the higher levels of spam messages that would otherwise have been blocked. When using the block lists, you may experience lower overall spam catch rates.
In the case of a standard reputation (Known Spam Source List) service lookup, the order of the evaluation hierarchy is:
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Approved IP
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Blocked IP
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Approved country
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Blocked country
For dynamic reputation (QIL) service lookup, the customer-defined “blocked policy lists” (IP, Country) are ignored; only the approve lists are checked. Otherwise, the order of policy lookup (first IP, then country) is the same as for standard reputation (Known Spam Source List) service.