Block a spammer

Every role can mark spam and lift it: agents, admins and the owner.

Mark a conversation as spam#

1. Open the conversation.

2. Open the … menu in its header and choose Mark as spam (under it: "Blocks this shopper"). If Ivy suspected spam, the bar above the reply box has a Mark as spam button too.

   

There is no confirmation: the toast says "Marked as spam" and that the shopper is blocked, with Undo. The Inbox then opens your next conversation.

What marking spam does:

• The conversation is resolved and moves to the Spam view. Its wait clock stops and Ivy's draft is cleared.
• The visitor is blocked: the browser they chat from, until someone presses Not spam.
• Their IP address is blocked for 30 days, so a new browser on the same connection is caught too.
• It never counts toward your conversations, and nobody gets an alert about it.

When Ivy suspects spam#

Ivy doesn't answer messages that look like spam or abuse: floods of nonsense, advertising and link spam, harassment, attempts to trick her into ignoring her instructions, the same message sent again and again, or someone who keeps pushing a topic she has declined. She never flags a shopper for being upset, rude about a real problem, short, misspelled or writing in another language.

When she suspects spam, she tells the shopper "I'll pass this to the team." and hands the conversation to Needs you with the reason Looks like spam. It is not in the Spam view yet and doesn't count toward your plan. A bar above the reply box says "Ivy thinks this may be spam, so she didn't answer." You choose:

• Mark as spam: it moves to Spam and the visitor is blocked, as above.
• Not spam: Ivy's suspicion is cleared and the conversation is handled as usual.
• Or reply, if it is a real shopper: the bar goes away once a teammate has replied. You can also return it to Ivy, which clears her suspicion and lets her answer; it then counts like any of her conversations.

Does the blocked visitor know?#

No. Nobody is ever shown an error or told they are blocked. When a blocked visitor writes again, their chat looks normal and says someone from the team will reply. Their conversation goes straight to Spam: Ivy doesn't answer, nobody on your team is notified, and it doesn't count.

How long does a block last?#

• The visitor: until someone presses Not spam on one of their conversations.
• Their IP address: 30 days from the moment you marked the conversation as spam.

Neither can be changed in the settings.

Can I unblock someone?#

Yes:

1. Open Inbox,Spam.

2. Open the conversation of the person you want to unblock. Search works in Spam too.

3. Press Not spam in the header.

   

The visitor and their IP address are unblocked, and the conversation leaves Spam for the view it belongs in (usually Resolved; Needs you if the shopper is still waiting). The toast says "Moved out of Spam" with Undo.

There is no list of blocked visitors and no separate unblock page: Not spam on their conversation, or Undo right after marking, is the way.

The Spam view#

Inbox,Spam is the last of the Inbox views, set apart from the others. The number beside it counts the conversations marked as spam in the last 30 days; the list keeps all of them, newest first. Search and the filters work there. A spam conversation has no reply box, only the line saying the shopper is blocked, and Not spam in the header.

Automatic protections#

Besides Ivy's judgment, Strathly limits how many new chats Ivy takes from one visitor: more than 3 new conversations from one visitor, or 10 from one IP address, in 24 hours. Past that, the conversation comes to your team in Needs you with the reason Too many chats from one visitor, Ivy doesn't answer, and it doesn't count toward your plan. These limits are fixed. How the chat is protected from abuse explains every protection on the store's side.