[Resolved] Dealing with large amounts of spam

[wynnmc]

Hi All

I am getting a large amount of spam: ~120 - 150 a day.

Filtering is working well with all but the occasional one going into Held Mail.

It takes a few minutes to report the morning's collection but

1) Is there a quicker way than selecting all and reporting them (25 are displayed per page so 25 are reported at a time)?

1b) Should I be just deleting those more than 2 hours old? Advice in this forum some time ago was that reporting spam more than 2 hours old was not worthwhile.

2) Would it make more sense to change my email address? It is on the spammers' lists because it was used in posting to Usenet a long time ago.

Advice would be welcome, thanks,

Chris

[agsteele]

1) Is there a quicker way than selecting all and reporting them (25 are displayed per page so 25 are reported at a time)?

1b) Should I be just deleting those more than 2 hours old? Advice in this forum some time ago was that reporting spam more than 2 hours old was not worthwhile.

2) Would it make more sense to change my email address? It is on the spammers' lists because it was used in posting to Usenet a long time ago.

You could change the number of messages that display per page within Webmail. I have mine set at 200 which is more than adequate.

You could also turn grey-listing on. That would reduce the number of spam items reaching held mail. You would then only report those items which managed to wriggle past grey-listing and (if you have it enabled) SpamAssassin. Of course that means some items are not reported but that is a trade-off between your time and the value of reporting. But it means that the risk of false reporting is much reduced.

As to changing your Email address, well it really depends upon how much hassle it would be for you and your contacts. Why should the bad guys create even more hassle for you if it isn't necessary.

Andrew

[Lking]

1b) Should I be just deleting those more than 2 hours old? Advice in this forum some time ago was that reporting spam more than 2 hours old was not worthwhile.

2) Would it make more sense to change my email address? It is on the spammers' lists because it was used in posting to Usenet a long time ago.

1b) First thing in the morning I have my mail app sort the spam by date and report to SpamCop only the newer ones. This is not an entirely accurate sort, with forged dates 3 days old and days in the future, but it is quick. SpamCop gets the "newest" 25-50 and KnujOn gets then all.

2) I agree with Andrew. And besides what would you do about spam addressed to Postmaster[at] or Webmaster[at] or abuse[at]? I have been using the same two email addresses for close to 20 years, one personnel, one business, and they must be on every spam list out there. To change one address would require changes to all the places I contact (contact me) on the net, pay my bills, forums, friend (Ok that's a streach!). Most places now ask for an email address just like they ask for a phone number. I don't even know all the places I would need to update if I dropped/changed an email. However, there are those that clam using throw-a-way addresses works for them.

[Farelf]

...

1b) Should I be just deleting those more than 2 hours old? Advice in this forum some time ago was that reporting spam more than 2 hours old was not worthwhile.

...

There is high value in reporting spam right up to 24 hours old - that *might* extend the time an already-listed IP address remains blocked to something closer to the full period it has been spamming - there is some value in reporting it right up to the 48 hour limit (which might affect the address 'reputation' should it return to spamming). The official SC FAQ suggests "most spam reports are redundant after only a few hours" in terms of providing the administrator of the address with a 'heads up' to take action. While the exact functioning of the listing algorithm is (deliberately) obscure, that suggestion does not necessarily take into account the interaction of reporting and listing and the protection the BL provides to its users against the spamming IP address.

[wynnmc]

Thanks for all the replies.

I see that changing my email address could be a bigger problem than continuing to spend a few minutes a day reporting spam ... besides reporting spam is a public service, isn't it

I see the advantage of reporting all the night's spam as Farelf suggests, when it's more than 24 hours though, it seems best to just delete it all.

Thanks for the greylisting suggestion, agsteele, I didn't know what it did: now I have it turned on.

I would like to extend the display per page to something like 200 but I can't find the place in Settings to do it ... I had it once, I know, but now I can't track it down. Webmail Preferences doesn't appear to have it anywhere; I think I found it somewhere unexpected but I've even checked Spamcop Preferences to no avail ...

Thanks again for all the help,

Chris

[turetzsr]

Hi, Chris!

<snip>

I see the advantage of reporting all the night's spam as Farelf suggests,

...Or less than all, if you are not up to doing each one.

when it's more than 24 hours though, it seems best to just delete it all.

...Certainly anything that arrived more than 48 hours before, since the SpamCop parser won't accept anything older than that.

<snip>

I would like to extend the display per page to something like 200 but I can't find the place in Settings to do it

<snip>

...Take a look at this post.

[agsteele]

I would like to extend the display per page to something like 200 but I can't find the place in Settings to do it ... I had it once, I know, but now I can't track it down. Webmail Preferences doesn't appear to have it anywhere; I think I found it somewhere unexpected but I've even checked Spamcop Preferences to no avail ...

In webmail, go to options, then choose Mail and Folder display options. The messages per page setting is the fourth item in the list.

Andrew

[wynnmc]

In webmail, go to options, then choose Mail and Folder display options. The messages per page setting is the fourth item in the list.

Thanks (to turetzsr as well), I looked at that option several times and managed to miss the setting. Some people need to be led by the nose

Greylisting is SOOPAH

Just one entry in Held Mail in the last 18 hours or so. Many, many thanks agsteele.

A different problem (should I start a new thread?), I wanted to brush up my German and set language in the login to Deutsch. Now I find I can't change it back to English. The login text changes but the display (Inbox, Held Mail) is still in German.

Is there somewhere else where it is set?

Perhaps it is Firefox as it has been compiled with LANG="de_CH.UTF-8" and that is causing Webmail to be Helpful .

Thanks for all the help,

Chris

[agsteele]

Greylisting is SOOPAH

Yes, but of course, all that's happening is that spam is being discarded before reaching your mailbox

Sadly, I'm linguistically challenged and not able to offer a solution to your German challenges. But you could try: Options. Then in the top right corner in the drop-down box choose Global Options. Now choose Locale and Time and I have an option selected for British English. What does yours say?

Andrew

[wynnmc]

Sadly, I'm linguistically challenged and not able to offer a solution to your German challenges. But you could try: Options. Then in the top right corner in the drop-down box choose Global Options. Now choose Locale and Time and I have an option selected for British English. What does yours say?

You really want to know

First it says "Einstellungen" (that's Options), then choosing "Allgemeine Einstellungen" (Global Options) from the drop down box, there is ... Sprache und Zeit just as you said.

It seems to be easier to miss things when they are not in your own language -- at least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it

All done now, thanks again.

Chris