Junk mail - what am I doing wrong

karavite

karavite

Registered
Hello, I did a forum search and did not find an answer to my specific question. I have been using Mail since the day it came out, but junk mail is getting worse and worse. I have been training for junk mail consistently, yet the same exact messages (though from different senders) keep coming through as "not junk." For example, the 'software on sale' messages, the viagra messages, the cheap percription drug messages - and on and on up to 30 a day! Many have content as html and goofy subjects like these from tonight:

Re: his see at designation
jiggle it transliterate amorous blather a shrine the ostrander , span
but necessitate, the wilt
DeeDee the, stink see astraddle
physic ballyhoo ethiopia false concede appointee ego ursuline

Maybe I just need to have mail run a grammar check on mail subjects! :)

Is it just too much for Mail to handle, all these crafty spammers? Should I go to some filtering/authentication service (like the one advertised here on macosx?). If so, what would some of you recommend.

Also, note that I have comcast as my mail provider and many of these spam messages are from what I assume are unwilling comcast users - meaning many have a comcast sender. Maybe it is time to dump Comcast as my mail account? For the $150 a month I pay those guys for digital cable and broadband, you would think they would offer a bit more.
 
I had the same issue with Mail, that it simply can't learn certain messages are junk. I switched to Personal Antispam from Intego. It does a much better job of consistently picking up spam mail. I am sure that there are some less costly solutions and hopefully someone will offer up some additional suggestions. I also have comcast and while I don't use their email, I get few spam messages in my inbox.
 
It is nothing you are doing wrong, except you should turn off training mode if you have not already done so. Mail will continue to learn even if you are not in training mode.

The problem is a lot of spammers are some of the sharpest knives in the drawer and they are being paid really good money to figure a way around any spam blocker. About the time you close one loophole, they slip in through another. Much of the spam these days is sent either as a graphic image or an HTML page and in either case there is nothing for spam blocker to check.

The most effective I have seen is the so-called white list. You create a rule in Mail that any mail received from an addressee not in your address book is, by definition, spam. Of course that means if your girlfriend changes email addresses and does not notify you of the change in advance you will never get the change of address sent from the new account. But there has never been and never will be a perfect anti-spam scheme.
 
Glad this thread was started. I have noticed an increase in spam that Mail doesn't seem to catch. Thanks for the other ideas.
 
shades said:
Glad this thread was started. I have noticed an increase in spam that Mail doesn't seem to catch. Thanks for the other ideas.
Click to expand...
Mail will learn to catch some of it and by then the spammers will have figured out another way to get around the spam blockers, so it tends to go in cycles.

Some providers are using "blacklists" to control spam. That means if a lot of spam or virus infected mail originates from that domain the provider blocks all mail from that domain. Some PC user had our church email address in their address book and became infected with a virus that replicated itself by spoofing the "From" address. As a result our church domain wound up being blacklisted. It took some detective work to find out why members were not receiving messages from the church and a lot of argument to get the church domain removed from the blacklist. The provider admitted that at any given time incoming messages to their customers from AOL, Verizon, Yahoo, MSN, SBCGlobal, Earthlink, etc. could, and probably would, be blocked, sometimes for days.
 
I've had very good success, over 99% of spam correctly identified, with a combo of Mail's junk capabilities, my email host's SpamAssassin configuration, and Junkmatcher, which works exclusively with the Mail app AFAIK.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22023

There are some users who have posted to VT that JunkMatcher doesn't play well with Tiger, but that hasn't been my experience (your mileage may vary).
 
This is something i did a few years back and worked full proof and had it published on a web page...

For a long time I have been getting about 30 - 40 Junk Mail a day. After a telephone conversation with a tecnician from my Internet Provider he suggested this theory. So after playing around with keywords and things I have developed this full proof lay out. Now I only get the mail I want and have never received any Spam for over two months now.

In this first section (1) I have selected my friends I wish to receive mail from. They are forwarded to another email account I use for my primary checking. I have selected “Do not apply any more filters....” This will stop any keywords I have used in other sections.

Order Message Filters Edit Delete
1 If any of these conditions are met:
From: contains "********@hotmail.com"
From: contains "********@yahoo.com"
From: contains "********@optusnet.com.au"
From: contains "ecomtel.com.au"
Then: Forward to: ******@austarnet.com.au
Do not apply any more filters to this message if action is taken

Primary keywords Spam uses. Filter these words and any other common word you could think of, then select Discard or Delete (note be aware that delete could move the filtered action to the trash can that could soon fill up)

2 If any of these conditions are met:
Subject: contains "Keyword"
Subject: contains "Keyword"
Subject: contains "Keyword"
Subject: contains "Keyword"
Then: Discard
d

Here I used my email name in the To/CC feild as some Spam would use hidden email names and if the email does not contain my name it will be filtered.

11 If any of these conditions are met:
To/CC: does not contain "bunga77@austarnet.com.au"
X-Junkmail: contains "Keyword"
Body: contains "Keyword"
X-Junkmail: contains "Keyword"


Another sneaky thing is the Undisclosed.Receiptants, hiding all the email names Spam send mail to. I’m guessing this is my major action of stopping Spam Mail getting to my account. I have a friend who uses Undisclosed.Receiptants in her mailing, so I have used From:does not contain

13 If any of these conditions are met:
To/CC: contains "Undisclosed.Recipients@austarnet.com.au"
From: does not contain "******@hotmail.com"
Subject: contains "bunga"
Subject: contains "bunga77"

If you need to subscribe to a site that requires them to send you a password or confirmation to enter it. Best thing is to open a yahoo or hotmail account. By retreiving your passwords from those accounts both yahoo and hotmail delete spam every 30 days or so, so you don't have to worry.


GOODLUCK WITH FIGHTING SPAM
 
Thanks for all the replies and all the ideas! Heck, we have the whole range here from the simple and practical to the extreme (Satcure - I read your page and will keep it in mind if all else fails). I think I will try Junkmaster, but I really think the problem here is mostly with Comcast - else, why would so many of my spams have a "@comcast.net" sender. Since I pay them for braodband, I figured why not use the free email accounts? I think it may be time to change.

Then again, perhaps I should call Comcast's friendly and knowledgeable customer service department for valuable tips, advice and assistance? :D Yeah, right. I might as well as the kid at Home Depot!
 
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