[Ham-Computers] RE: Spam filters

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

>>> W0QFC wrote:
What I would like to have in a filter is one that not only filters the spam, but once the sender is determined to be a spammer sends the email directly to the recycle bin. Or better yet, just deletes it. 

>>> My reply:
The danger in filtering by "sender's address" is that most SPAM use forged addresses.  So what happens is the filter will start deleting e-mail that might be legit.  For example, I know that my work e-mail address has been used as the "From:" address for SPAM.  If one were to setup a SPAM filter based just on e-mail addresses, then legit e-mails from me would be blocked (some of you on this list might not get this post because of this <g>).

The "best" SPAM filters on the market today use "Bayesian" filtering.  This technique uses statistical analysis to determine if an e-mail is spam, likely spam, or legit.  Basically, it counts the number of words in an e-mail and makes a determiniation based on how many times a word or phrase shows up in the e-mail.  Word placement also helps determine if an e-mail is legit.  For example, many e-mails with the name of a certain African country along with certain financial words are likely to be SPAM (no matter how long or short the entire e-mail may be).  Better filters might also check the syntax of a sentence though this doesn't often work well as many of us have atrocious writing skills.

Since you have a somewhat working SPAM filter, might I suggest the following.  Depending on how your filter "marks" SPAM (and what e-mail program you're using), you could try building a "rule" or "script" that automatically moves (or deletes) e-mail marked as SPAM.

73 & GL,

  - Aaron Hsu, NN6O