Fighting SPAM

[Helevitia]

One of my biggest pet peeves is SPAM. It drives me insane to the point where I actually take the time to unsubscribe and then delete whatever SPAM I may get. On to the point....

I read on [H] today about SPAMnet from a company called Cloudmark. some of you may have heard about them but they make it VERY easy to get rid of SPAM. I ask you, as a member of the community to think about using this software for FREE. No, I don't work for them or know them but this is the most effective anti-SPAM i have seen so I am recommending it.

How it works: You get SPAM in your mailbox, you send it to the newly setup SPAM folder, it now never comes back. Not only that but it will never show up in ANYONE elses mailbox that has SPAMnet installed!

https://www.cloudmark.com

EDIT: forgot to mention the only drawback(for now). It only works on 2000/XP with Outlook, NOT outlook express...in time though

Dave

[Agent31]

love it!

[CHHAS]

Now if they would make a version for something else than the biggest virus magnet since the invention of the internet I might actually take a look at it.

[Wombat]

You could use spam assassin or Spam Cop. With the Cop, you just forward them anything you get that is Spam. Their filters do a very good job of figuring out who to block from your e-mail.

[Guru]

http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34738&highlight=spam

[LvR]

Wombat

you just forward them anything you get that is Spam

While I would agree that its a very good idea to maintain a central database of real spam sources, I have my doubts about the noble attempts of everybody sending a mail that he considers to be spam to these guys.

What happens when some A..hole that feels offended by, for instance a comment you make on a webboard somewhere. Next time he gets a mail from you, he sends it off for inclusion in the database, and everybody you then send mail to (and have told about this little utillity) now suddenly ends up dumping the legit mail you are actually sending.


edit:

Dave

From their writeups:

When a spam message is submitted to Cloudmark SpamNet, the system generates a secure fingerprint or signature of each message. This unique, but indistinguishable, fingerprint can now be securely shared with all the other SpamNet users to identify the same spam message in their email

It looks to me like a sort of situation where an auto-update feature is once again employed to update your email proggie (just like the current Windows W2K/XP issues) - leaving me thinking when is my email spam database updated? - and - who gets to decide what is spam - somebody elses spam may not be that when it arrives in my mailbox.

It is a nice idea though, as long as only people with the same interests/outlook on life joins the community.
Maybe I just dont understand the idea here, or am I simply not trusting enough ?.

[Wombat]

Check it out yourself http://spamcop.net/

[Helevitia]

Originally posted by LvR
Wombat It looks to me like a sort of situation where an auto-update feature is once again employed to update your email proggie (just like the current Windows W2K/XP issues) - leaving me thinking when is my email spam database updated? - and - who gets to decide what is spam - somebody elses spam may not be that when it arrives in my mailbox.

It is a nice idea though, as long as only people with the same interests/outlook on life joins the community.
Maybe I just dont understand the idea here, or am I simply not trusting enough ?.

If you read the FAQ, you will find that the way it works is probably a lot different than you think. It does not block SPAM based on email addresses it uses some kind of signature algorithm that looks at the content of the mail, so even if the wording is changed slightly, it still picks up on the SPAM. Also, everytime you submit SPAM, the company looks at your submission and and decides if it is SPAM or not. The more you submit accurately, the more weight your submission gets when submitting. This means that nobody can just submit something just becuase htey are pissed or something. Check it out While I have looked into SPAM cop, this is much, MUCH easier than that.

Dave

[SteveC]

It gave me massive headaches with my Outlook 2k here at work - might be cos it connects to an exchange server? Anyway, after installation I could no longer load Outlook and my network (Domain) password kept being locked out....

[[Ch]amsalot]

The problem with this software is you're relying on others, in part, to determine what is spam.

That could be a dangerous thing

-[Ch]ams

[Helevitia]

Originally posted by [Ch]amsalot
The problem with this software is you're relying on others, in part, to determine what is spam.

That could be a dangerous thing

-[Ch]ams

Please read how the program works. Your statement isn't entirely true.

EDIT: hmm, guess I should read better. I missed the "in part" part of the sentence. Anyway, my point is, every person is rated on how accurate they submit SPAM, so it still works fairly well.

Dave

[The PIT]

At work I just filter out any non work address's and add address's that I know I want to recieve. Works like a charm.
No more penis enlargement and birds promising me the blowjob of my life.
At home I don't get any spam and don't do any filtering.

[[Ch]amsalot]

Helevitia,

I guess my major concern is that someone will mark a non-spam e-mail that they receive as spam. In such a case, you may not receive an important notification.

Does the software require say, 100 users to mark something as spam before it blocks it from everyone else??

-[Ch]ams

[LvR]

Dave, I am going to continue to play (be?) dumn here.

I have actually read the "spiell" about it, but is still confused about the details about how exactly it is supposed to work.

To assure that you never lose email, no messages are ever deleted or blocked. If a message is identified as a known spam message, it is simply tagged as spam and moved to your Spam box. This process allows you to verify that all the messages in the Spam box are really spam

OK - so I get to still download it into my inbox after wich it is moved to my spambox?. Or do I have a spambox with these guys on a server somewhere that downloads the spam from my own email server?. In order to identify the new mail arriving containing spam, I (my email tool) needs to know about the definitions or signatures - I have to assume its on my own machine, and if so when and how do I get the sig of the most irritating "Lizzie" spam just submitted by Zokespro a few seconds ago?

I am not running Outlook or XP, otherwise I would have installed the damn thing to see what is going on - hence the questions.

I still think its a good idea, but seem to remember another croud about 18 months ago trying to do the same thing in the US somewhere, and eventually gave up.

edit

Oh - and lets say I am a waaaaay lowly rated twit (on their TES system)as far as being able to identify real SPAM, but end up getting spam mail from a particular source - how do I get it onto that list? (Lets say very few users are targeted by a particular company/person, and they just happen do get off on hitting me 100 times a day?)