Off Topic: anti spam software??

[David B Teague]

The enigma wrote:
> David B Teague wrote:
>   
>> Disclaimer:
>>
>> <SNIP>
>>
>> Can anyone recommend antispam software that works under XP with 
>> Thunderbird? Thunderbird Baysean spam detection isn't effective against 
>> spam that has advertisements in an embedded image.
>>
>> <SNIP>
>>
>> [Spam Assassin may be my answerif there is a Windows version.]
>>
>> <SNIP>  
>>     
>
> I have that problem too. I use Thunderbird 1.5 for Winxp, and I haven't 
> found any Spam filters yet that work with it. Thunderbird 1.5 does come 
> with the option to send incoming mail  to their junk folder, and any 
> successive email from that domain/user is then automatically moved to 
> that folder. As a matter of fact, that's the way most of your  junk mail 
> software works anyway. As time goes on, you usually get junk mail from 
> the same places (usually) the junk mail downloading to your inbox 
> lessens. I've created a filer for this mailing list, so my inbox doesn't 
> get cluttered. I have two email addresses. I've done the same thing on 
> the "Evolution" email client on my Linux box.
> Hope this helped
>
>   
Unfortunately, spamming software is able spoof a different originating 
address  for each batch of email they send. At least that has been my 
experience. Thunderbird examines the messages you mark as "junk" and 
keeps a data base of characteristics of messages you have junked. It 
reviews incoming messages for these characteristics.Uusing Baysean 
statistics, Thunderbird estimates the probability of the message being 
spam. If the probability is high enough, it junks the message.

But that doesn't work well when the spam is in an image with innocuous 
text in addition to the image. The innocuous text confuses the Baysean 
data base, making the tool ineffective. Before these things began to 
pester me, Thunderbird's tool worked well, but now, it is just a waste. 
I really want something that will challenge everyone not on the whitelist.

Warmest Regards
David Teague