Spamihilator Strangeness

  • Thread starter Thread starter V65MagnaFan
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V65MagnaFan

Hi,

.. I get about 150 spam messages per day and I've been "teaching" my
Spamihilator for about two weeks

The learning stats indicate a learning parabola. It missed most spam for the
first couple of days. Then, each day, it caught more and more. On its best
day, it caught about 50 spams. Currently, it catches fewer than 10 per day.

Acting on a tip I read, I deactivated the word filter for a couple of days.
I wonder if this impeded the spam capture--if it was actually a bad tip.

With nothing better to do, I loaded Mozilla 1.6 with its mail program.
Mozilla claims that this program has a junk mail trap. On first use, it
caught every spam message. Go figure?

So, what's wrong, if anything, with my Spamihilator?

TIA
 
V65MagnaFan said:
Hi,
I get about 150 spam messages per day and I've been "teaching" my
Spamihilator for about two weeks
The learning stats indicate a learning parabola. It missed most spam for the
first couple of days. Then, each day, it caught more and more. On its best
day, it caught about 50 spams. Currently, it catches fewer than 10 per day.
Acting on a tip I read, I deactivated the word filter for a couple of days.
I wonder if this impeded the spam capture--if it was actually a bad tip.
With nothing better to do, I loaded Mozilla 1.6 with its mail program.
Mozilla claims that this program has a junk mail trap. On first use, it
caught every spam message. Go figure?
So, what's wrong, if anything, with my Spamihilator?
Click to expand...

No program is going to be 100% effective in filtering spam. In fact,
some of it may actually make you miss email that you want. My advice
is to do like I did and to tell your ISP to change your account name
(user ID). This will change your email address and all messages sent
to your old one will bounce. Select one composed entirely of random
characters, since spammers use programs to generate email addresses
based on first letters, known last names and known domains. Next, set
up a spam dump with yahoo.com. Only give your real email address to
those you are certain you can trust. Then, start posting to usenet
with a TOTALLY munged address. Don't use your real user name or domain.

Finally, don't have a web page on your ISP's server. The address to
such pages usually includes both your user name and ISP's domain,
giving your email address totally away.

Since I've done this (now going on three months ago), I've only gotten
two spam messages and I don't know how they got through.

The latest issue of Computer Shopper has a suggestion in the "Hard
Edge" column. In it, a reader suggests the following:

"What's needed is the ability to block mail from a specific IP
address, or a *range of them*. You could even choose to block
everything coming from that ISP, and perhaps notify the ISP you're
blocking its mail and why. Before long, it would not be financially
viable for ISPs to provide service to spammers. Legitimate users would
soon leave in search of an ISP whose mail gets delivered, and the
spammers would be paying to send out mail that never goes anywhere.
Problem solved."

This kind of mimics domain filter lists like the Spamhaus Block list
(SBL) and the MAPS project. The difference being that it would be the
END USER who's doing the filtering and telling the spamhaus's to knock
it off. No lawsuits would be possible.

But for now, my advice above is what's working perfectly for me.
 
John Corliss said:
My advice is to do like I did and to tell your ISP to change your
account name (user ID). This will change your email address and all
messages sent to your old one will bounce.
Click to expand...

My advice would be to not take advice on such matters from Corliss, who
still hasn't a clue what he's talking about.
 
Hi,

. I get about 150 spam messages per day and I've been "teaching" my
Spamihilator for about two weeks

The learning stats indicate a learning parabola. It missed most spam
for the first couple of days. Then, each day, it caught more and more.
On its best day, it caught about 50 spams. Currently, it catches fewer
than 10 per day.

Acting on a tip I read, I deactivated the word filter for a couple of
days. I wonder if this impeded the spam capture--if it was actually a
bad tip.

With nothing better to do, I loaded Mozilla 1.6 with its mail program.
Mozilla claims that this program has a junk mail trap. On first use,
it caught every spam message. Go figure?

So, what's wrong, if anything, with my Spamihilator?

TIA
Click to expand...
If you happen to use Outlook Express, see
http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/OS/Email/filter1.htm
Black Viper's common sense suggestions and some well-crafted rules
(filters) eliminate virtually all spam without additional software. JC's
comments, posted here, also make good sense to me.
 
It is written by humans that cannot update it fast enough to catch all the
trixs that spammers us, BUT, it is a lot better than Norton Anti-Spam that
is not free, and that I was stupid enough to buy. I now use the free
version of qurb.
 
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