Quick Reporting Held Mail

[dbiel]

I do not believe that the topic of how to use / not use quick reporting of held mail has ever been fully addressed so I am raising it here.

It is very easy to simply click on "Check All" and select "Quick - report immediately and trash"

Disregarding the obvious (you have scanned the list and removed any false positives) other non-reportable mail will still be in the list.

1) Messages without any body

2) Mail you have inadvertantly signed up for or forgot you had signed up for

3) Bounces (considered reportable now in most cases)

4) ????

Since most people do not open each message to determine if it is reportable or not, should the "Check All" and quick report be used or not?

Should quick reporting be limited to only messages that are obviously spam with out opening them, plus messages that have been opened and determined to be spam; or is it acceptable to use quick reporting (within the HeldMail) to report non-reportable mail?

Note: mail in this category "2) Mail you have inadvertantly signed up for or forgot you had signed up for" does create problems if reported.

[StevenUnderwood]

Note: mail in this category "2) Mail you have inadvertantly signed up for or forgot you had signed up for" does create problems if reported.

42027[/snapback]

This is the only category I worry about as it is the only one with repercussions to my reporting account (i.e. can get my account suspended).

Personally, I use quick reporting from within webmail which I have setup to show me a small preview of the message. I have (as others) made mistakes in the past and usually notify the deputies before they notify me when I see the report.

[dbiel]

Note: this topic will result in the creation of one or more new FAQs after it is fully flush out.

SpamCop Email Account users have several different ways of reporting spam.

In some cases the differences between the methods remain unclear.

From within the VER interface users have the following reporting methods for dealing with messages in the heldmail folder:

Quick - report immediately and trash

This option generates an email report of the results of the quick report.

Queue for reporting (and move to trash)

Queue for reporting (do not trash)

It is unclear what happens to mail when using this option.

Mail is deleted from the VER view of the HeldMail folder and it is NOT moved to the trash.

Where does it go?

Well, it actually stays in the Held Mail folder but its status is changed

It can be accessed by using WebMail to view the Held Mail folder or by using IMAP

Using IMAP in Outlook Express the message is identified by a red flag

Using WebMail it is identified "!" highlighted in orange, which is defined as important.

Note: the VER options do not generate any email notification that the mail is now ready for reporting.

WebMail provides an option "Report as spam"

This is a type of quick reporting, not full reporting. I know my first thought was that it was a method to use full reporting, so I would not be surprised if other users assume that they are doing full reporting when using this option when in reality it is only a form of quick reporting.

What remains unclear is the differences, if any, between this form of quick reporting, and the option provided in the VER interface.

WebMail users also do that the option for forwarding mail for full reporting available to any reporting account user.

[michaelanglo]

1) Messages without any body

2) Mail you have inadvertantly signed up for or forgot you had signed up for

My belief is that Quick Reporting works fine on cat 1 (bodyless) email. Note that since Quick Reporting ignores the body this behavior is most reasonable.

cat 2 emails are a problem for full reporting too so nothing special here.

If they have a blank or generalised subject, an apparent "from:" that I don't recognise and an html body that webmail won't render then I am going to report them. Any good mail that matches this was obviously sent by someone too stupid to be allowed to use a computer.

AFAIK Webmail "Report As spam" is the same as VER "Quick Report and delete"

[turetzsr]

...Once again, I wish to make the point that Quick Reporting must be used with extreme caution, as it automates the process of reporting your own ISP or MSP. Although MailHosts configuration helps to avoid this, it does not eliminate the danger entirely. For example, on two occassions my provider (my employer, in this case) changed or added some outgoing e-mail servers, causing the parser to want to report some of my spam to my employer's abuse address. I was able to catch this because I don't use Quick Reporting.

[agsteele]

Interestingly, reporting from within the webmail interface only offers a quick report process. So less informed Email users may consider that clicking the 'report as spam' link within webmail is a perfectly correct approach offering no particular concerns or risks.

Indeed, the temptation to use quick reporting when faced with more than 100 spam items to report when checking first thing in the morning must be overwhelming. Few of us have the time to go through each individual message in those quantities and report individually. So for these two reasons it is inevitable that the quick report option will get used extensively.

In fact the very time when Quick Reporting is most welcome - when there are large amounts of spam held - is the very time when the risk of misreporting messages because they are obscured by the long list. A short list of spam is easy to review and avoind mistakes :-)

I'm not proposing it be removed but if the function exists there will be many who use it and errors will occur.

I have been caught by the very issue Steve mentions with the Mailhosts not keeping up with configuration changes - but Don was brilliant is assisting when I discovered the issue.

I agree that Quick Reporting raises the level of risk in relation to mis-reporting. But I'm not sure what can be done to address that risk.

Andrew

[dra007]

The risk is absorbed by the small number of false reports ...hopefully a rare occurrence... When I discover it, I try to whitelist the sender to avoid from having them falsely reported, but it's unavoidable with the large no. of spams we report daily.. Unfortunately for most of us those no. ('s) do not diminish no matter how long and consistently we have reported..

[turetzsr]

<snip>

I agree that Quick Reporting raises the level of risk in relation to mis-reporting.  But I'm not sure what can be done to address that risk.

Andrew

42273[/snapback]

...The best, nay, the only solution is for SpamCop users to be careful and to remember that SpamCop is a tool that helps us to automate the process of identifying the source of spam and sending reports. It does not replace our intelligence, it facilitates it.