Spam is Killing Me! (using Mail)

[mainstreetmark]

I've been using Mail for about three weeks now, and I expected this Bayesian filter to be a little better by now.

In general, it blocks about 60% of my spam, which, saddly, means I still get more spam than legit e-mails, and this bugs the hell out of me. I don't need to enlarge my body part while getting a good mortgage rate.

Anyways, what are some alternatives, here? Can I examine how Mail makes it's junk decision? Am I correct in my assumption that it 'learns' every time you press the Junk button (or maybe when you empty the trash) and not just when it's in training?

Is there an equivalent of Spampal.com's thing that I can use?

 

[whocares]

It just learns as you go along... If some kind of spam appears (one you haven't received yet) you'll have to tell Mail it's spam. I've been using mail for a long time (8 months) and it filters 90-95% spam. Quite effective.

You can try http://www.spamcop.com and get all your mail directed to a spamcop address. IIRC you can then open that spamcop address as a standard IMAP/POP address in mail. No it isn't free and no I haven't tried it...

 

[daveyt]

I've had no problems with Mail filtering out spam. The most effective single rule I've got is that if the sender isn't in my address book, in the Junk folder it goes. You can set rules in Mailreferences:Rules...easy. Mail also remembers addresses that you have sent to that may not be in Address Book, so replies and stuff end up in the right place. You just have to remember to go through your Junk folder every now and then and make sure nothing slips through. If something that isn't Junk is there, you can designate it "Not Junk" and Mail adds this to its filter.

easy. Good luck

 

[mainstreetmark]

Yeah, I've thought of that, actually, but I have too many of my old friends that haven't e-mailed me yet, so I'd hate to shove them straight off into Spam. I do have my address book people appear black and make a sound, and all the others as grey.

They should make this stuff illegal, or at the very least, tagged.

 

[whocares]

Originally posted by daveyt
I've had no problems with Mail filtering out spam. The most effective single rule I've got is that if the sender isn't in my address book, in the Junk folder it goes.

Yeah, I do exactly the same.

-mainstreetmark
don't worry about treating your old friends as spam. You're meerly moving them into the spam folder (they are not tagged as spam). Add them to your address book on a "e-mail arrival" basis, and you'll just suffer the inconveniance once.

Try it, it works quite well, at least for me.

 

[fraeone]

If 60% of his Spam is being filtered out, and it's still outnumbering his regular mail, I have a feeling that sending regular mail to the spam folder will lose it forever.

I use a @yahoo.com account for every single form that I fill in on the internet. That way I manage to keep most of my spam out of my regular account. If you have something that is posted on a website, I dunno what to say.

Good luck

 

[mainstreetmark]

Unfortunatly, this address is my main e-mail address I use for business purposes, and i've been using it since 1999 or 2000. I'm generally careful and don't use it for online forms and such (that's what hotmail is for) but once you get on one list, you're on them all.

It also doesn't help that i used "mark@" which is easily guessable by name+domain scripts.

 

[Horrortaxi]

Just keep hitting "junk" on your spam and it'll learn eventually. I had the same address for 8 years and it was very public so that address gets over 100 spams a day. It took Mail 4-6 weeks to learn it all. It still lets 1 or 2 a day through but only junked 2 real messages in 8 months.