Outlook spamkiller: filter by number of characters in one string

[Guest]

Hi. I get offensive EMails that always have the words in the subject line in
one character string. For Example: POTENCYBOOSTER or ILIKETOSUCKIT. I've
been noticing they always have more then 10 characters in a string to make up
the sentence. If the Spamkiller Personal Filters allowed us to filter EMails
with more than 10 characters in a string we could get rid of almost all of
these EMails.

Also, they will substitute numbers for letters, as in C0CK (zero instead of
the letter "o." If we could filter for combined numbers and letters in a
string, we could get rid of these, too! Thanks!

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[Steven M (remove wax and invalid to reply)]

Je Thu, 20 Jul 2006 21:54:02 -0700, spamhater

Hi. I get offensive EMails that always have the words in the subject line in
one character string. For Example: POTENCYBOOSTER or ILIKETOSUCKIT. I've
been noticing they always have more then 10 characters in a string to make up
the sentence. If the Spamkiller Personal Filters allowed us to filter EMails
with more than 10 characters in a string we could get rid of almost all of
these EMails.

Also, they will substitute numbers for letters, as in C0CK (zero instead of
the letter "o." If we could filter for combined numbers and letters in a
string, we could get rid of these, too! Thanks!

First, this post is off-topic for this group. You might get more
information somewhere else.

I haven't used Spamkiller, but from what I read about it, you might
want to take a more sophisticated approach.

Most filters are far too simplistic and require far too much user
adjustment. They rely on rules such as the one you describe to
identify spam. The ones that are built in are not powerful enough and
easily evaded, as you point out. And it's a waste of time for you to
keep adding such filters.

Instead, there are several other anti-spam techniques that are much
more effective and require less tinkering by you. My two favorites are
Bayesian statistics and DNS block lists

A Bayesian filter not only examines the subject line, but a lot of
other information about each incoming message. This will include, not
only the text in the subject line, but the other header lines as well,
and the text in the body.

Then, it maintains a database of statistics about the terms are most
and least likely to be associated with spam emails. After a brief
learning period, often a few days, the filter has been "trained"
enough. Then, it can identify almost all spams with an error rate of
less than 5%. (Everyone's spam load is different.)

In addition, some spam filters examine the headers of each email, to
determine the path that the message took from the spammer to you. They
examine the IP numbers in the "Received" headers (which are not
normally visible to a user). They look up those numbers in one or more
IP "block lists". If the number is associated with a spammer, then
the message is likely spam, and can filtered on.

Most spam includes HTML links. These links are used by the spammer to
display a picture in your email, or to signal the spammer that the
message is being read (and that your address is more valuable).

The latest versions of Outlook and other programs will not retrieve
the information from a link in your email. That is a good first step.
But some spam filters go farther: they examine such links, and
compare them to a block list, to see whether the IP numbers are
associated with spammers.

There are many paid solutions, but for my personal use I use a free
program SpamPal, available at www.spampal.org . (including DNS
blocking and a Bayesian filter add-on).

For more information about DNS blocklists:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNSBL

One of the first articles about Bayesian spam filtering:

http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html



--
Steven M - (e-mail address removed)
(remove wax and invalid to reply)

bus station = where bus stops
train station = where train stops
work station = ?

 

[Steven M (remove wax and invalid to reply)]

Je Tue, 25 Jul 2006 21:09:57 -0500, "Steven M (remove wax and invalid

Je Thu, 20 Jul 2006 21:54:02 -0700, spamhater


First, this post is off-topic for this group. You might get more
information somewhere else.

The post is still off-topic, but I was reading about SpamPal. It has
a plugin called the Regex filter. It allows you "to filter or
whitelist your email based on Perl Regular Expressions. For more
information, including a manual in both English and German, see:"

http://www.slabihoud.de/spampal/

I'm sure that you could get it to do what you want.



--
Steven M - (e-mail address removed)
(remove wax and invalid to reply)

bus station = where bus stops
train station = where train stops
work station = ?