What do you use for antispam filtering?

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2005-12-18 01:57am

I've been experimenting around with POPfile in an attempt to cut down the hassle of dealing with the large amounts of spam and phishing emails that I get daily.

My results in less than a month of usage:

Hopefully the number of false positives will fall to nearly zero and then I won't have to monitor the wastebasket folder in my email program*.
Does anyone have any other suggestions for spam filtering?

*BTW, my favorite email program, Courier Email 3.5 is now free.
I like it because it works seamlessly with multiple accounts, it has a simple backup feature that saves everything (including your configuration settings) to a single file, and you can turn off HTML viewing for greater security.

JediToren · Post by **JediToren** » 2005-12-18 04:18am

Back when I used Kmail/Kontact (KDE's e-mail app), I piped everything through SpamAssasin. Now I just use Gmail's web interface. I have found that GMail is ruthlessly effective against spam. I might get one spam message a month, now.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-12-18 05:24am

I use Gmail and I've gotten maybe one spam in the last year or so, I don't need any more

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2005-12-18 05:44am

Question: Do people regularly get spammed in their "real" E-Mail? I mean like Outlook or whatever. Because I get about 1 unsolicited "spam" message per year, maybe two. I think Bellsouth has an spam filter, but not too sure about that. In any case, aside from the videogame commercials I get from Gamespy (and I asked for those), there is never any advertising, scams, or other such things in my Inbox.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2005-12-18 06:56am

I just use Gmail's POP service, and my university's mail service, which both have their serverside spam filters. I do have spamassassin for Evolution, but it's not really needed.

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2005-12-18 07:27am

I have spam filtering at the ISP level (my uni and my ISP) so I only get reports for caught spam. What little manages to get past that gets caught by Outlooks junk mail filters. I haven't gotten a spam mail in my inbox ever since this setup has been put in place.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2005-12-18 07:34am

I rarely if ever get spam after the ISP filters it. I don't see a real need for any anti-spam proggies.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2005-12-18 07:38am

Gmail/uni mail server + Thunderbird. Gmail's filter seems to work a lot better then my university's, though.

Only two-three spam messages get through their filters each week, and TB catches them.

avoidingthepo · Post by **avoidingthepo** » 2005-12-18 08:30am

gmail does a great job, and i must agree with previous posts that using gmail i have only received 2 or 3 spam email in the past 14 months. my school's email server still lets a lot of spam through, but it marks it as spam to let you know that, yea we let it through but just incase you actually wanted \/1 4g r.A

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2005-12-18 10:28am

My ISP does have a rudimentary spamfiltering capability, but I turned it off because it wasn't very effective at stopping the spam and was blocking some of my 'real' mail from getting through.

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2005-12-18 11:45am

Thats why I have it set to quarantine spam and send me periodic reports. 99% of the time the reports make it clear that the stuff quarantined is spam just by looking at the subject line. When that 1% of real mail gets caught its relativly trivial to chage the settings to allow it thru in the future plus to get the quarantined mail(s).

Datana · Post by **Datana** » 2005-12-18 12:40pm

I rely mostly on Thunderbird. Comcast's filtering sucks balls -- in the past two days, I've gotten 16 spam messages (nearly all V146r4 and C!/\7i5-type affairs), and the only thing that got put into the "Spam" folder by their filter was a real message. This is despite my diligently marking every spam as such and turning each in for analysis. Fortunately, when downloading mail via POP, it simply dumps everything on you, including what's in the spam folder, so I can do some real filtering on my end. Thunderbird, after initial training on a batch of saved legit and spam messages, currently has a 100% accuracy rate (it hasn't had a single false positive or false negative to date).

Ypoknons · Post by **Ypoknons** » 2005-12-18 12:54pm

Gmail regularly filters the 100 spam e-mails I get daily from my moment of stupidity in thinking that I could get a free XBox360. Occasionally one or two get through but it's certainly not a big deal.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-12-18 05:18pm

Yahoo's spam filters are actually fairly effective... I only get maybe ten in a week. If you've got it set to auto-delete whatever's in your 'bulk' mail folder...

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2005-12-18 06:56pm

Something to consider: Try Googling your email address, in quotes. Your goal is to have google return 0 results. if not, ask each site in turn to remove your email address from the website. Exceptions to this rule would be for BBSes like here.

More tips on avoiding email harvesters:

1: Munge your address on site guesbooks; an example is 'name at domain dot com' or 'name @7 domain D07 C0|\/|' to foil 'smarter' advanced harvesters.
2: Don't sign up for ANYTHING without either being able to trust the site or using a Disposable Email Address like sneakemail.
3: Don't try to 'unsubscribe'. Spammers, being the morally-bankrupt chickenboning fucktards they are, more likely than not will set up 'unsubscribe' links to actually confirm email addresses as live instead of actually unsubscribing you!
4: Avoid anything that involves the words 'Special offer', 'partners', or 'affiliate'. Guaranteed spam from multiple sources.
5: Don't use Hotmail. Their spam filters suck twenty-kilometer neutronium bowling balls through a thin plastic straw, most likely purposefully to 'encourage' you to pay for the service to get proper filters.

Another thing to consider: Spammers exist because one fucktard who buys, even one out of several million, will completely recoup the cost of a spam run several times over in one fell swoop. DO NOT BUY FROM SPAMMERS, EVER. Okay, Preaching to Choir over. GG!

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2005-12-19 01:17am

I run 3 different email accounts:

a Yahoo account, which I sign up to most things with. It gets 3-4 spams a week, and apart from a few rare mistakes (the last one was a few months ago) it filters the spam and legit mail correctly.

Ive recently started signing up for a few things with my gmail account, but both it and my isp account (both of which ive had for nearly 2 years) have yet to recive a single spam. I put it down to luck

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2005-12-19 07:42am

ASSP

It is a really nice serverrbased spamkiller.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2005-12-19 03:50pm

I use Hotmail to filter my spam. Any shit i need to sign up for I give one of my hotmail accounts, i have 3. Only people i actually know have my real ISP's addy.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2005-12-19 04:34pm

My university uses SpamAssassin.