[Tfug] ANTI-SPAM

[Michael Seidner]

Here is a pretty cool spam tool plugin for Outlook....Written in
Python...
http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/spambayes/




-----Original Message-----
From: tfug-admin@tfug.org [mailto:tfug-admin@tfug.org] On Behalf Of Sam
Hart
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 11:25 AM
To: tfug@tfug.org
Subject: Re: [Tfug] ANTI-SPAM


> I did some more research on relays.osirusoft.com's software.
> 
> I started an evalutation of this software. It appears that it doesn't
> have to deny open relays. It can just 'tag' with headers the SPAM
mail. 
> With headers, the MTA can:
> * Put the mail in a private SPAM folder
> * Put the mail in a seperate SPAM mail spool.
> * Post the SPAM to a private/public newsfeed

That's excellent. That solves exactly the concerns I have (I don't mind
my 
SPAM filtration being overly aggressive, but I want to have access to
all 
the potential SPAM messages so I can evaluate on my own whether it's 
blocking non-SPAM or not).

> SPAM filtration systems are not 100% accurate and a lot has to do with
> tuning scripts. It seems even the case with open-relay filtration. Is 
> there anyone getting 100% out there with any other SPAM filtering?
I've 
> read testimonials that say relays.osirusoft.com's rbl is accurate 90%
of 
> the time.

Actually, in my original post, I pointed to the results that I am
getting 
with SpamAssassin and Vipul's Razor: http://geekcomix.com/snh/spam.shtml

(these results are tabulated since July 2002)

In my tests I am getting /very/ high accuracy- approx. 95% with very 
little incorrectly tagged messages (I typically have to hand move about 
3-5 legitimate messages a week out of my spambox, considering I get 
roughly 100 messages a day, that's pretty good. Plus, I have to move 
approx 11 missed item of SPAM out of my mailbox per month. These numbers

are easily accessable from the above page).

I've been very pleased with my filtration results. I will admit I did
have 
to spend a few weeks tweaking my SpamAssassin settings (actually, just
one 
setting, the one that tells how high a message ranking must be for me to

consider it spam).

>  From the article that Sam linked, I wonder if it is wise to deny SPAM
> at all. Seems that if you block spam with filtration of open-relay
mail 
> or otherwise, you still have a good chance of throwing out legitimate 
> mail, so you are stuck having to let it all through anyway.

That's why I do filtration on a per-message basis.

Now for some people, RBL/DNS/whatever denying will work fine. But for 
someone like myself that must work with people from all over the globe
and 
such, it simply isn't a consideration. But when you consider that I get 
673 items of spam per month (ouch! that number is real from the above 
site.. oog) I need some sort of spam filtration.

-- 
Sam Hart
University/Work addr. <hart@physics.arizona.edu>
Personal addr. <criswell@geekcomix.com>
end


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