<span> and filters

  • Thread starter Thread starter CGR
  • Start date Start date
C

CGR

Hi,

I have a lot of junk mail coming in and my filters take care of most of it.
The problem I have is with people using the <span> function to disguise junk
for instance:

VIA<span fontcolor="#black">GRA</span>

I had hoped that an outlook rule would recognise <span and send it to my
junk e-mail box but it doesn't.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
 
in message
I have a lot of junk mail coming in and my filters take care of most
of it.
The problem I have is with people using the <span> function to
disguise junk
for instance:

VIA<span fontcolor="#black">GRA</span>

I had hoped that an outlook rule would recognise <span and send it
to my
junk e-mail box but it doesn't.
Click to expand...

And they can split it across cells in a table, misspell the words or
add interceding characters, and other schemes to hide their spammy
keywords. It is an attempt to hide from Bayesian or spam-word
filters. That's not the only way to detect spam. Look at SpamPal.
It's free. Besides Bayesian, it detects known spam sources using
DNSBLs (IP blacklists), P2P (or DCC where users reports the hash value
for an e-mail using some fuzzy logic to see how many users received
the same e-mail), HTML checking, and other methods. Forget trying to
make rules that emulate a spam-word filter. Spam-word filters never
work very well and generate lots of false positives.
 
CGR said:
I have a lot of junk mail coming in and my filters take care of most
of it. The problem I have is with people using the <span> function to
disguise junk for instance:

VIA<span fontcolor="#black">GRA</span>

I had hoped that an outlook rule would recognise <span and send it to
my junk e-mail box but it doesn't.
Click to expand...

Outlook rules cannot detect the HTML commands.
 
Brian Tillman said:
Outlook rules cannot detect the HTML commands.
Click to expand...

This is what confuses me, if it can't detect them a filter for <span should
work, obviously it does detect them as it is ignoring my filter, this being
the case you should be able to do something.

I am trying to avoid looking at all this rubbish and I think that there is
nothing worthwhile likely to be sent to me that contains a <span> function,
if there is I could find it later in the junk folder.
 
legit html email does use span tags.

What version of outlook? (Since you didn't include the previous content on
your reply I have no idea if you mentioned the version before.)
 
Outlook 2003 SP3

I know legit stuff can use the span tag but I have no urgent need to see
anything with it in and can find it in the junk folder later.
 
CGR said:
This is what confuses me, if it can't detect them a filter for <span
should work, obviously it does detect them as it is ignoring my
filter, this being the case you should be able to do something.
Click to expand...

No, if it can't detect them, a filter for them WON'T work. As far as
Outlook is concerned, the raw HTML doesn't exist in the message. A rule
cannot detect the HTML tags.
 
in message
No, if it can't detect them, a filter for them WON'T work. As far
as Outlook is concerned, the raw HTML doesn't exist in the message.
A rule cannot detect the HTML tags.
Click to expand...


And they don't even have to be valid HTML tags. Outlook rules cannot
determine that "PE...<span>...NIS...</span> is valid HTML whereas
"PE<xtagspacer>N<bobsyouruncle>IS" is not valid HTML. Outlook doesn't
bother interpreting the HTML code whether it is valid or not. It is
an old trick by spammers to get around filter to hide their text by by
using HTML tags, valid or not. You are trying to use a simple
spam-word filter. They don't work without incurring lots of false
positives.
 
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