 Cybertoad
join:2001-11-08 Houston, TX
| reply to nightdesigns Re: Spammers getting around Spam Assassin
quote: My web provider is using Spam Assassin which for years has worked great, but I see companies have figured out how to get their "score" low enough to get around the filters.
I am not sure who you are hosting with but the hosting provider where I work uses a lot more than just Spamassassin and continuously monitors and updates the spam protection to adapt to all spammer changes on a daily basis.
quote: I'm already running a score threshold of 3.
I would be a little leary reducing the score even that low because it sets up the possibility of trapping HAM (non-spam) messages by mistake. There are other much better ways of doing that without reducing the score. I would leave the spam trigger score higher and adjust the scoring values on the individual rules themselves.
quote: I'm hesitatnt to open the spam e-mails to see what the scores are, because it loads the images in the e-mail, and guess what, more spam!
I use Mozilla Thunderbird for my POP3 email client and it has the ability to block images until you approve that they be displayed so that you are able to view messages without anything being reported back to the spammer. It also isn't vulnerable to a lot of the security problems that are common to Outlook and Outlook Express. Plus there is a "Junk" mail feature with Bayes learning built in that can sort spam out of your inbox immediately upon checking your mail.
If you are not using Mozilla Thunderbird, you might want to seriously consider switching over. |
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  madylarian The curmudgeonly Premium join:2002-01-03 Parkville, MD | reply to nightdesigns I had to drop down to 2 because so many "pump 'n dump" spams were getting through. I'm building up quite a whitelist, but it's worth it.
mady -- Honi soit qui mal y pense |
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 rmturner
join:2001-10-18 Kennesaw, GA
·Speed Factory
·Comcast
| reply to nightdesigns Are they using 3.0? And do you have access to your user_prefs file? Someone at my webhost suggested adding these rules to your user_prefs, and they are catching everything for me. Almost zero false positives.
score X_MESSAGE_INFO 10 score URIBL_SBL 10 score URIBL_OB_SURBL 10 score URIBL_PH_SURBL 10 score URIBL_WS_SURBL 10 score URIBL_SC_SURBL 10 score URIBL_AB_SURBL 10 score RCVD_IN_XBL 10 score RCVD_IN_SBL 10
You can check out the default scoring for version 3.0 here: »spamassassin.apache.org/tests_3_0_x.html and customize your user_prefs accordingly. -- "No matter how I struggle and strive, I'll never get out of here alive". Hank Williams |
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  nightdesigns Gone missing, back soon Premium join:2002-05-31 AZ
·Cox HSI
| My web provider is using Spam Assassin which for years has worked great, but I see companies have figured out how to get their "score" low enough to get around the filters. I'm now getting 10-15 pieces a day under the radar (still blocks 50+/day). Any tips on block these e-mails too? I've tried specific word filtering, etc, which has helped a little, but not much.
I'm already running a score threshold of 3. I'm hesitatnt to open the spam e-mails to see what the scores are, because it loads the images in the e-mail, and guess what, more spam! -- The _REAL_ OC: Cookie-cutter soccer moms driving their SUVs through the McDonalds drive-through, blowing away their child's college education on their $600/month car payment, $4500/month mortgage payment, and their plastic surgery/boob job/botox bill. |
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