Off Topic: anti spam software??

[Jeffrey F. Bloss]

David B Teague wrote:

> 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

That's simply untrue. My spam filters catch almost all of this sort of
"viagra" traffic. Even the new stuff with paragraphs of Markov chain
generated text built from actual, legitimate messages. Spotting
"innocuous text" that exists in conjunction with an image of certain
properties is one of the very reasons for the existence of bayesian
filters. Your spam software just needs trained properly (oe switched
out if it can't be). Bogo and SA both can be, FWIW.

> 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.

Challenge-response is *evil*. The only things you'll accomplish are
duplicating spam one for one and clogging up mail servers with more
useless messages, notifying spammers you're alive and well as some
address, and annoying senders of legitimate messages into just not
bothering to exchange email with you. 

-- 
     _?_      Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
    (o o)         Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
-oOO-(_)--OOo------------------------------[ Groucho Marx ]---
                    http://wrench.homelinux.net/~jeff/
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