Spam filter cannot remove penny stock hint spams
Zenon Pylyshyn
all. In fact if you keep feeding these spam message to the learning
spam filter it will not only fail to learn the right pattern but will
most likely learn the wrong patterns. That's because the penny stock
spam message is actually a graphic and not text so the words are not
accessible to the filter (try doing a "edit as new" on the message and
you will see). On the other hand a the rest of the message below the
stock advice is text, but the text is totally unconnected to the spam
message.
If anyone knows a way to filter out images of text that would be
helpful, but in the meantime I have been deleting these spam messages
and NOT calling them spam.
What the filter could use is something like what Earthlink and other
ISPs have -- a way to temporarily mark as spam any email not from a
user in your address book. Is there any way to do that in Thunderbird?
Chris Ilias
> The Bayesian filter in TB can't eliminate the penny stock spams at all.
> In fact if you keep feeding these spam message to the learning spam
> filter it will not only fail to learn the right pattern but will most
> likely learn the wrong patterns. That's because the penny stock spam
> message is actually a graphic and not text so the words are not
> accessible to the filter (try doing a "edit as new" on the message and
> you will see). On the other hand a the rest of the message below the
> stock advice is text, but the text is totally unconnected to the spam
> message.
>
> If anyone knows a way to filter out images of text that would be
> helpful, but in the meantime I have been deleting these spam messages
> and NOT calling them spam.
If you're having trouble training JMC, make sure to mark non-junk
messages as Not Junk [Message-->Mark-->As Not Junk].
Also make sure the sender's address is not in your address book.
> What the filter could use is something like what Earthlink and other
> ISPs have -- a way to temporarily mark as spam any email not from a user
> in your address book. Is there any way to do that in Thunderbird?
Tools-->Message Filters.
[From][isn't in my address book][Personal Address Book]
Perform these actions:
[Set Junk Status to][Junk]
--
Chris Ilias
mozilla.test.multimedia moderator
Mozilla links <http://ilias.ca>
(Please do not email me tech support questions)
Zenon Pylyshyn
Graphics-that-look-like-text problem).
Zenon
Zenon Pylyshyn
Thunderbird 1.05.07 options. I assume that copying it to the junk
folder and then deleting it will do the same?
Mumia W. (using mozilla)
> [...]
> What the filter could use is something like what Earthlink and other
> ISPs have -- a way to temporarily mark as spam any email not from a user
> in your address book. Is there any way to do that in Thunderbird?
Yes. Create an alternate Inbox (Alternate-Inbox) and filter messages
from people in your address book to the alternate inbox.
Your original inbox will fill with spam, but you'll have the situation
much more under control. Just clear the spam out of the Inbox every so
often and check it for real messages.
Paul_B
> Except that the action "set junk status to" does not appear in my
> Thunderbird 1.05.07 options. I assume that copying it to the junk
> folder and then deleting it will do the same?
message menu/mark/'as not junk' is there in mine, also in the
context menu, and also doable via shift-j.
in junk mail controls make sure your adaptive filter is turned on
and make sure to mark good mail as non-junk to build up a
database.
another way to nail this spam is by counting RBL warnings, but
you'd first have to collect them with an external program.
p.
--
Mail: Thunderbird 1.5.0.7
News: Dialog 2.0.15.1 (beta 38)
OS: Win XPH sp2
G. R. Woodring
I've looked at the source of some of these messages and I think there are two
oddities that can be filtered.
First: the HTML part of the message has frequent use of the characters =3D
Second: the image (MIME Encoding) starts with the characters R0lGOD
For each affected email account create a filter set to "Match all the following"
[Body] [Contains] [=3D]
[Body] [contains] [R0lGOD]
"Perform these actions"
[Set Junk Status to] [Junk]
[Move Message to] [Junk on /account name/ ]
This filter will work invisibly, that is you examine you junk folder for false
positives and take the same actions you would take with messages placed there by
Junk Mail Controls.
R0lGOD is the base 64 encoding for .gif files and might produce more false
positives if used without the =3D filter especially if you have "freinds" who
like to send you cartoons. In that case include Chris' [isn't in my address
book] filter condition.
All this assumes the messages I am seeing closely match yours.
--
G. R. Woodring
Xenonphile
sources of my stock-offering spams to see if there are other
consistent characters. I will post if anything interesting comes up.
Zenon
Chris Ilias
> Except that the action "set junk status to" does not appear in my
> Thunderbird 1.05.07 options. I assume that copying it to the junk
> folder and then deleting it will do the same?
Just so there's no confusion, you are using version 1.5.0.7, not 1.05.07.
Go to:
Tools-->Message Filters, *select the mail account*, then click on "New".
Screenshot: <http://ilias.ca/screenshots/tb-SetJunkStatusFilter.png>
(and please type your replies below the quoted text, when posting in
here. Thanks :-) )
Moz Champion (Dan)
Please bottom post here if you will, thank yoiu
Adding any external filters to your email program for spam, or using
another spam filter agent in addition to JMC will REDUCE JMC's
effectiveness.
C A Upsdell
> I've looked at the source of some of these messages and I think there
> are two oddities that can be filtered.
>
> First: the HTML part of the message has frequent use of the characters =3D
Unfortunately a lot of legitimate messages also contain =3D. I once
made the mistake of blocking messages containing =3D, since I noticed
that this appeared in so many spam messages, but later found that it did
not appear only in spam.