Better way to filter spam?

[Lacey_Underalls]

I've gone through several threads regarding spam and have added a filter to each of my email accounts that will automatically delete any emails that aren't addressed to my actual address (I was getting a ton of spam that had part of my actual email name in it, but some other variation on the rest), and that has significantly cut down on the amount of junk mail I've received; however, I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to eliminate the spam I get when it's addressed to my correct email address. What seems to work best for you? I hate checking my BB after I get a new email alert only to find it's an offer for cheap Viagra or something of the sort. TIA

[aiharkness]

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8700/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

For what it's worth, I use the automated spam filters on my yahoo and ISP accounts, and do not use my blackberry.net address except with close friends and family. Once you start getting spam on that address I doubt there is anything you can do that will be very effective. My opinion.

[Dubdub]

If you are using the carrier supplied email address, that one is totally unfiltered and opens you up to tons of SPAM if you use it. That is one of the reasons, I never recommend using it.

If it is SPAM via another address, then your ISP should be responsible for filtering it. Not sure I can help you there.

[Lacey_Underalls]

I apologize, I should have clarified: I'm talking about my Yahoo! account, not my BB e-mail-I don't use that one. So my Yahoo! e-mail has a filter that states any e-mails not addressed to my correct address will automatically be sent to my trash. Even though this has cut out about 90% of the spam I was getting, 5 or 6 sneak by each day, so if anyone has any ideas what other filter terms I can use, it'd be very much appreciated.

[aiharkness]

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8700/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

The yahoo spam filter is pretty good. I find it too aggressive sometimes. I'm curious why you are setting up your own filters.

[Lacey_Underalls]

I'm curious why you are setting up your own filters.

Because an obnoxious amount of spam is getting into my inbox and thus, onto my BB where I have no option to mark it as spam. A decent amount of spam was going directly into my bulk folder, but alot was going straight into my inbox for some reason.

[Klotar]

If it gets to the point where upstream filters aren't doing any good or you risk losing real email, you might look at Antair Spam Filter. Yes, spam still goes to your phone but it's actioned so fast that you won't realize you got any.

It will keep the last 100 spam emails so that if you have to find a certain email, you can. In addition to it's filter engine, it also has domain blacklists and whitelists, email address blacklists and whitelists, term blacklists and whitelists, and so on with 10 levels of filter strength.

While it may be pricey to some at $49, if you can't just change an email address because you've had it for x number of years, and the ISP filtering level is not customizable, and you don't want to have a zillion filters on your carrier.blackberry.net account; then this might be for you. Yahoo / Gmail and disposable email accounts just weren't around when some of my accounts were created.

[Lacey_Underalls]

Thank you for your input; however, I'm not looking to pay for additional spam services. I am capable of adding additional filters to my Yahoo! account and am just looking for common phrases or words or whatever that these bots use. I know I'll never be able to block out all spam this way, but I'm just hoping to take out some with common words/phrases.

Another question: I've been getting spam instant messages the past week or two-at least one IM per day. I never go into chatrooms and I don't have my AIM screennames posted publicly, so I'm wondering where these bots are getting my info from. I'm pretty sure that every one that's messaged me has mentioned a link of LoversLounge.com or something. I haven't checked the site out, and replying with "Remove me" doesn't seem to do any good, so I just keep adding them to my block list. What's going on?

[Phranc]

Never, ever, not anytime in your life time, respond to any spam message. You just confirmed they have a good working email/IM address to sell and send more spam to.

[aiharkness]

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8700/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

I'm curious why you are setting up your own filters.

Because an obnoxious amount of spam is getting into my inbox and thus, onto my BB where I have no option to mark it as spam. A decent amount of spam was going directly into my bulk folder, but alot was going straight into my inbox for some reason.

For what it's worth, you can mark spam emails on yahoo from Yahoo Go! I sometimes do that, or just leave the email until I can log in to yahoo from a computer and mark it. But as I say, it is rare for me that spam makes it to my inbox; it's usually the other way around, where I'm checking the spam folder for legit emails.

[takeshi]

I know I'll never be able to block out all spam this way, but I'm just hoping to take out some with common words/phrases.

You'd have to look at the spam that you're receiving to make this approach effective. I mean, it doesn't help you if we give you keywords that aren't in the spam you're receiving. I don't really recommend going this route as you probably won't make much a dent in the ones that are slipping through. Is there no way to tweak Yahoo's spam filtering?

[Lacey_Underalls]

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8700/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)
For what it's worth, you can mark spam emails on yahoo from Yahoo Go! I sometimes do that, or just leave the email until I can log in to yahoo from a computer and mark it.

When you download Yahoo! Go, does it add a program to your BB? I prefer to not add alot of programs to my phone. I've been just waiting until I get home to mark the messages as spam on my laptop, but I like to get rid of them right away when I see them.

Is there no way to tweak Yahoo's spam filtering?
The options for spam filtering for Yahoo! offer little control over how they monitor/get rid of spam, which I why I had to impose my own filters as it wasn't recognizing tons of spam. Here are the few standard options they offer besides my filters:
http://i30.tinypic.com/hsjmnn.jpg

[mizditz101]

I've seemed to notice a lot of spam isn't actually just text, but pictures that have text on them..
Maybe if you changed the image settings to block images it thinks are spam it would help...
I know those "grow" emails are almost all picture attachments with an "image" although it's just words on the image...

I haven't ever had a problem with my yahoo though, I find some spam gets through my Gmail account more than Yahoo, but it might be because I use Gmail more

[aiharkness]

Wirelessly posted (8700g)

Lacey_Underalls, Yahoo Go is an application. I just checked and found that you can report email as spam from the email interface on yahoo's mobile web site, too. The web portal is not as convenient, in my opinion, as the Yahoo Go email module.

My advice is give yahoo go a try. Many hate it and some like it. You can delete it if you don't like it.

[ezrunner]

best way to filter SPAM


DO NOT EAT IT!!!!

[daphne]

Filtering spam by words or phrases is hard because the spammers are constantly changing tactics. I do have some filters on my BIS accounts so some things aren't forwarded to my device -- the obvious stuff like Viagra, etc. But spammers use misspellings of words, spaces in words, odd phrases and such to bypass filters.

Is your email address posted anywhere on the web, like forums or guest books? If so, your email address is being harvested by spam bots and the lists are sold to spam organizations. The best thing to do with spam is not open it at all. Just delete it without opening. Some spam has images that lets the spammers know when you open the email and bingo! They know they got a real live email address, which means they will continue to spam you.

[Lacey_Underalls]

I've seemed to notice a lot of spam isn't actually just text, but pictures that have text on them..
Maybe if you changed the image settings to block images it thinks are spam it would help...
I know those "grow" emails are almost all picture attachments with an "image" although it's just words on the image...
I've noticed that they use images with text, also; however, lately it seems like the Viagra, Cialis, porn, etc. spam I receive is regular text and written as one long word rather than a proper sentence. I changed the settings to block suspected spam images, anyway. It can't hurt.
Lacey_Underalls, Yahoo Go is an application. I just checked and found that you can report email as spam from the email interface on yahoo's mobile web site, too. The web portal is not as convenient, in my opinion, as the Yahoo Go email module.
Thanks for the advice. I might download it at some point, but I did try just using the mobile Yahoo! site to delete the few spam e-mails I got today and it wasn't too much of a hassle, so I might keep that up for awhile.
Filtering spam by words or phrases is hard because the spammers are constantly changing tactics. I do have some filters on my BIS accounts so some things aren't forwarded to my device -- the obvious stuff like Viagra, etc. But spammers use misspellings of words, spaces in words, odd phrases and such to bypass filters.

Is your email address posted anywhere on the web, like forums or guest books? If so, your email address is being harvested by spam bots and the lists are sold to spam organizations. The best thing to do with spam is not open it at all. Just delete it without opening. Some spam has images that lets the spammers know when you open the email and bingo! They know they got a real live email address, which means they will continue to spam you.
I've noticed the misspellings and odd phrases/spaces, too, like "Vaigra" instead of "Viagra" and "sxe ully" instead of "sexually," so I know imposing filters for these terms won't knock out everything. =[

The only place I know my e-mail is posted online is my Facebook site. You need to enter a school e-mail address (which forwards to my Yahoo! account, anyway) to join a school's network, otherwise I wouldn't post it.

I definitely don't waste my time actually clicking into the e-mail to delete it, since I can just check the little box next to the e-mail and hit the "spam" button on the main inbox page. That automatically sends it to the trash folder and adds the sender's e-mail address to my blocked list.


Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and input. I know I can't totally eliminate spam, but the more options I have to minimize it, the better. I don't like when a friend grabs my BB and sees "Hot busty babe..." in the subject line of an e-mail, haha.

[jessep28]

Filtering spam by words or phrases is hard because the spammers are constantly changing tactics. I do have some filters on my BIS accounts so some things aren't forwarded to my device -- the obvious stuff like Viagra, etc. But spammers use misspellings of words, spaces in words, odd phrases and such to bypass filters.

Is your email address posted anywhere on the web, like forums or guest books? If so, your email address is being harvested by spam bots and the lists are sold to spam organizations. The best thing to do with spam is not open it at all. Just delete it without opening. Some spam has images that lets the spammers know when you open the email and bingo! They know they got a real live email address, which means they will continue to spam you.

Yeah, it's an ongoing battle and it doesn't take much to start. My primary Gmail account I used to guard pretty well and suddenly the junk mail started piling up.

Speaking of which, Gmail in my opinion has the best Spam filters but they don't officially support Blackberry to get true Push email.

[daphne]

A lot of spam nowadays is sent by infected PCs that have been turned into zombies and are part of botnets. The botnet masters manipulate the zombie PCs to send spam. Some spambots generate random email addresses at known domains. Many of them will be invalid, but some valid addresses will be generated and sent, and a few people will open them and click on the links and buy someting from spammers. It's a numbers game. There's evidently money in it otherwise they wouldn't keep spamming.

[carlkra]

For those who use email as an important part of their personal communication as I do, it can be well worth the cost to register your own domain name and use a DNS service provider who provides flexible email redirection service. In Canada this costs me about $70 per year including a secure web site that allows up to 100 email addresses and 100 web sites on my domain name to be redirected to any actual provider (the DNS service provides only Domain Name Service and redirection, they are not an email or Internet service provider). I can create a new address or redirect an existing one to a new provider address in seconds and its online worldwide immediately.

So here what I do with my domain name to minimize SPAM. I create one address that is my personal address given only to trusted senders. I create one or more disposable addresses like name26-at-domain.com. Those are the ones I give out when I purchase something online or have to post an email address when registering for some online service. If name26 starts attracting too much SPAM (and it will, everyone you buy something from will start sending adverts) then I delete it and create name27 and so forth.

If my email provider address (gmail, yahoo etc.) starts attracting too much SPAM to its own native address, I can always delete that address and create a fresh one and redirect my existing domain addresses to the new provider address so no one out in the world can tell the difference. And with your own domain name, you will never have to send a change of address to your contacts even if you change your carrier or email provider.

It can be quite cost effective if shared among several people. I use my family name as the domain name and my whole family has their emails redirected with their own personalized addresses.

It's a war out there and this helps a lot.

Regards,

Carl

[daphne]

Carl, you are so right on this:

It's a war out there and this helps a lot.

That's a great system you have. Do you mean you redirect the domain email address to another provider like Yahoo or Gmail? I have domains also and have deleted a number of email addresses and created new ones.