Looking for strategies on lowering spam received
- Thread starter snooper
- Start date
Yes, we got an apology from psoft for their errors, and they corrected the problem!
I left out a few lines here, but this is most of it.
Dear Tanmaya.
We are really sorry for disinforming you. There really was a problem with two instances of spamassassin and clamav running on mail3. We have fixed this problem and now your user's scores are used correctly. You might just need to repost those scores for some mailboxes.
We are really sorry for inconveniences.
I left out a few lines here, but this is most of it.
Dear Tanmaya.
We are really sorry for disinforming you. There really was a problem with two instances of spamassassin and clamav running on mail3. We have fixed this problem and now your user's scores are used correctly. You might just need to repost those scores for some mailboxes.
We are really sorry for inconveniences.
WebDesignSlave
Bass
I see a improvement some already. The 3 spam E-Mails, I have the last few hours are totally different subjects then I have been getting for the last 3 weeks. Probably because the spammers everyone has been having problems with, left no room for any others to fit in. HA HA HA.
This is a problem that matters me too. I'm usign SpamBayes for some time now and I'm happy with it, but I'm trying to replace my current addresses with new ones and don't give them to anyone I don't trust.
The problem is, you say even if you don't give your address you get spam on it. How's that possible? I can't think of anything other than ISPs selling their mail databases.
The problem is, you say even if you don't give your address you get spam on it. How's that possible? I can't think of anything other than ISPs selling their mail databases.
nzkiwi
Perch
I can think of several ways:
Have you ever received chain mail of any sort where not only are dozens of addresses included in the "To:" field, all the recipients from each earlier generation are included in the body of the message? What a wonderful source of addresses if it should get into the wrong hands.
Who knows how many PCs (home and business) that have been compromised by a Trojan that (a) harvests email addresses, and/or (b) acts as mail a server for Spammers? Either way, if one of these PCs has your email address, you will get Spam.
Dictionary attacks: In the English speaking world there are a relatively first names and last names in common use. By using various combinations of first and last names with or without an initial of the other name, you are likely to get a good hit rate.
Too many people use a domain mailbox which will accept any name addressed to that domain. You are really asking for trouble by using one. It's a bit like not only leaving your front door unlocked, but leaving it wide open and a notice inviting anyone to help themselves to the contents inside.
I even get spam sent to [email protected], [email protected], and even to [email protected] where I have that address activated. On a few domains, I have mailboxes such as [email protected] and [email protected] that are used solely as honey-pots for Spam. Even though these addresses are never used or publicised, the do receive mail - 100% Spam. I use mail from these addresses to train the Spam filter in my email client (Opera). As a consequence I get less than one Spam per day in my Unread folder (approximately equal to an In-box in other mail clients). On the other hand, my Spam folder gets between 100 and 200 messages on a typical day, and perhaps 1 or 2 good messages per week if I am unlucky.
While I would love to see the end of Spam, I don't see it happening any time soon. The best we can do is develop strategies to live with it.
I keep very strict control over who receives my every-day email addresses. As a consequence, I still have a few addresses that use no spam filtering at all - it's not required.