Steps to report Gmail spam as attachments via IMAP with Thunderbird

[Farelf 0]

Path: news.spamcop.net!not-for-mail

From: Sofa King Tyred of Lar Ting <nobody[at]devnull.spamcop.net>

Newsgroups: spamcop

Subject: Steps to report Gmail spam as attachments via IMAP with Thunderbird

Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:15:53 -0500

Message-ID: <fh24k6$au$1[at]news.spamcop.net>

Xref: news.spamcop.net spamcop:167590

Hi,

I've been trying out the new IMAP interface to Gmail using Thunderbird,

in order to report Spams from the spam folder. It has been more or less

a success, although I encountered some annoyances with the IMAP

functionality. Partly this is because IMAP messages aren't fully

downloaded until you access them. When you attach a bunch of messages

from an IMAP folder, the download of them can be very slow. I've found

some ways to speed it up, by forcing them to download as a block before

attaching them. There are also some quirky bugs about marking messages

as read and moving/deleting them from the spam IMAP folder. I'm not sure

if they are TB and/or Gmail IMAP issues.

Anyway, I am using TB 2.0.0.6. Here are some tips that I've discovered,

as the operation of reporting spams this way can be less painful if you

do things the a certain way.

0. Once you've got Thunderbird connected to Gmail and you can see the

spam folder in your IMAP (see the Gmail documentation for setting up

IMAP on TB), the following is the order in which I do things that seems

to go the fastest.

1. After verifying they are all spams, select all the messages in the

spam IMAP folder you wish to report.

2. Choose File -> Offline -> Get selected messages (this does a mass

download of all IMAP messages, which optimizes things).

3. Select the block of spams you want to report to SpamCop as

attachments. I have done blocks of 50 or 100 successfully, but your

mileage may vary.

4. Type "m" (or choose Message -> Mark -> As read) to make sure the

messages you're about to attach are all marked read. This is important

since there seems to be a bug in how TB marks the messages as read once

you attach them in the next step. It seems to slow things down and gets

confusing, since they appear to one-by-one mark themselves as unread

again if you mark them as read *AFTER* having attached them.

5. With the same block of messages selected, type CTRL-L (or choose

Message -> Forward) - Note: you must have set the preference in TB to

forward as attachments by default, otherwise select Message -> Forward

As -> Attachment.

6. In the new mail message, type your SpamCop quick report (or submit)

address. Type CTRL-ENTER to send the message.

7. Wait patiently... maybe this will go faster for you than it does for

me...

8. When the send is complete, you can delete (DEL key) or move the spams

from the IMAP folder into an archive folder. Note, once you have done

the move, TB remembers that move for the next time and gives you a

shortcut that is CTRL-SHIFT-M (Message -> Move to "folder" again).

On a good (bad?) day, I report over 800 messages this way, in blocks of

around 100 at a time...

Has anyone ever used AutoIt3 with Thunderbird? I've used it before on

another project, and I'm trying to resist the temptation to automate

this whole process... :-)

--

Help fight spam by "educating" the lax, zombie-hosting ISPs:

http://pages.infinit.net/filmore/educateYourISP.htm

[Wazoo 0]

The above came from [scspamcop] Steps to report Gmail spam as attachments via IMAP with Thunderbird Sofa King Tyred of Lar Ting .. who then opened up a new thread at [scspamcop] Reporting Gmail spam using IMAP, Thunderbird and KnujOn plugin. Sofa King Tyred of Lar Ting

Here's how I'm reporting Gmail spam using IMAP, Thunderbird and the

KnujOn plugin. It's easier than the approach I posted earlier.

Note: one does *not* have to report to KnujOn or be a member of KnujOn

via this method. The KnujOn plug-in is just a modified BlueFrog plug-in,

anyway.

Setup is Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 under Windows XP. I can't say if this works

on other platforms or not.

1. Get the KnujOn plug-in, and make sure it's visible on your TB tool

bar. Follow the directions /carefully/:

http://secondwheel.googlepages.com/knujont...on#installation

2. Configure KnujOn plug-in: Tools -> Add-ons -> KnujOn -> Options.

Enter your SpamCop reporting address (quick or submit), set the max

number of spams to include in each submission (probably between 50 and

100 for SpamCop), and decide what you want to do with the spams

afterward (I set it to do nothing). Note: you don't have to have a

KnujOn reporting address to use this plugin.

3. Select all spams in the IMAP spam folder of Gmail (see my other

posting of how to set up Gmail's IMAP access and get to the spam folder).

4. Mark selected messages as Junk (type "j" as a shortcut, or Message ->

Mark -> As Junk). KnujOn only reports messages labeled as Junk.

5. Force the IMAP download of the bodies: File -> Offline -> Get

Selected Messages. If you don't do this step, the email submission will

be very slow...

6. Click the KnujOn icon that should be on your tool bar (if you don't

see it, you probably need to add it by right-clicking the tool bar and

selecting "Customize", then dragging the icon).

7. KnujOn will create new TB emails containing the maximum number of

attachments, for all of the messages marked Junk in the current folder.

The emails contain the To: address you specified in the options.

Note: You can ignore the body of these messages, as it's a reminder for

people who use KnujOn on how to submit different types of spams. SpamCop

won't care about the body of your submission anyway.

8. Click send for each email that KnujOn creates.

[Farelf 0]

The above came from [scspamcop] Steps to report Gmail spam as attachments via IMAP with Thunderbird Sofa King Tyred of Lar Ting .. who then opened up a new thread at [scspamcop] Reporting Gmail spam using IMAP, Thunderbird and KnujOn plugin. Sofa King Tyred of Lar Ting

Thanks, I was just coming back with updates to the first post ... but not needed now.

[Wazoo 0]

Thanks, I was just coming back with updates to the first post ... but not needed now.

Added to the FAQ 'here' also ...

[Farelf 0]

This is a follow-on to the amended/new process using the KnuJon plug-in which was referred to in Wazoo's post further above and which Sofa King now prefers. Ported over to complete the saga in this topic, as it was started.

Path: news.spamcop.net!not-for-mail

From: Sofa King Tyred of Lar Ting <nobody[at]devnull.spamcop.net>

Newsgroups: spamcop

Subject: Re: Reporting Gmail spam using IMAP, Thunderbird and KnujOn plugin.

Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2007 15:16:27 -0500

Organization: SpamCop

Message-ID: <fh53ip$k4e$1[at]news.spamcop.net>

References: <fh2qb3$4e3$1[at]news.spamcop.net>

Xref: news.spamcop.net spamcop:167617

I want to make some small corrections to what I posted.

Sofa King Tyred of Lar Ting wrote:

> 1. Get the KnujOn plug-in, and make sure it's visible on your TB tool

> bar. Follow the directions /carefully/:

> http://secondwheel.googlepages.com/knujont...on#installation

>

> 2. Configure KnujOn plug-in: Tools -> Add-ons -> KnujOn -> Options.

> Enter your SpamCop reporting address (quick or submit), set the max

> number of spams to include in each submission (probably between 50 and

> 100 for SpamCop), and decide what you want to do with the spams

> afterward (I set it to do nothing). Note: you don't have to have a

> KnujOn reporting address to use this plugin.

>

> 3. Select all spams in the IMAP spam folder of Gmail (see my other

> posting of how to set up Gmail's IMAP access and get to the spam folder).

>

> 4. Mark selected messages as Junk (type "j" as a shortcut, or Message ->

> Mark -> As Junk). KnujOn only reports messages labeled as Junk.

>

> 5. Force the IMAP download of the bodies: File -> Offline -> Get

> Selected Messages. If you don't do this step, the email submission will

> be very slow...

>

> 6. Click the KnujOn icon that should be on your tool bar (if you don't

> see it, you probably need to add it by right-clicking the tool bar and

> selecting "Customize", then dragging the icon).

>

> 7. KnujOn will create new TB emails containing the maximum number of

> attachments, for all of the messages marked Junk in the current folder.

> The emails contain the To: address you specified in the options.

>

> Note: You can ignore the body of these messages, as it's a reminder for

> people who use KnujOn on how to submit different types of spams. SpamCop

> won't care about the body of your submission anyway.

In fact, the KnujOn plug-in only creates ONE email with a maximum of

attachments, based on the number you specified in the plug-in options.

Therefore, it's a good idea to have set the option to "Move messages to

the trash" or "Delete messages immediately", else you won't know what

messages got processed (i.e. forwarded).

> 8. Click send for each email that KnujOn creates.

This should be "Go back to step 6 until all of the spams have been

reported (forwarded).

--

Help fight spam by "educating" the lax, zombie-hosting ISPs:

http://pages.infinit.net/filmore/educateYourISP.htm

Edited November 13, 2007 by Farelf

[GraemeL 0]

If you have a SpamCop email account and have Thunderbird configured to connect to both Spamcop and Gmail via IMAP, then it's all very simple. All you need to do is select the spam in gmail, right click -> move to -> Spamcop -> Inbox -> held mail. Then go to your reporting page on Spamcop and either quick or normal report it. No messing around with plugins or forwarding.

Oh, remember to set up your mailhosts for Google too.

[Farelf 0]

If you have a SpamCop email account and have Thunderbird configured to connect to both Spamcop and Gmail via IMAP, then it's all very simple. ...

Thanks GraemeL - sounds like the definitive approach to me.