Any New Ideas For Dealing With Spam?

[JuniperPark]

It's an old problem, but has anyone found any GOOD ways to deal with spam?

I'm getting an average of 120 spam emails a day. Until recently I was using eNom's email system, which I learned the hard way was too aggressive in flagging spam, and often was hiding emails from clients (#*$^^!!!) as well as emails from eNom itself. Really stupid. I use Outlook, so I never saw the hidden "junk" folder until too late. eNom has been replaced.

So... I allow my new email handler to do it's own spam flagging, I do not want to lose clients. I can create "filter rules" in outlook, but spammers are too creative, there is no common text and/or the spam is mostly images whose names change with every spam. I expect the email address that I use in WHOIS and on webpages to get onto spam lists, but oddly enough I get most spam twice, one for the WHOIS email address, and again for the email that I use personally.

So... anyone have any good solutions? I'm thinking about moving to all new email addresses, perhaps every other year.

 

[katherine]

I prefer to run my own mail servers mainly for privacy reasons, but also for ultimate control. The problem with third party systems is that you depend on their antispam setup, sometimes you can't even whitelist or blacklist senders as you like, which is a shame and the least I would expect from a mail service...
The basics: deny connections from IP addresses with no PTR (reverse DNS lookup) set, or invalid domains. This alone will field out the majority of spam.
Occasionally, some legitimate mail originate from poorly configured servers, so I can still whitelist them on a case by case basis.
Then you can use spamassassin combined with realtime blacklists like Sorbs etc.
I made a few tweaks as well, for example the 'zombie' machines that keep pounding your mail server are blocked at firewall level.

One big benefit is that I have access to the mail server logs, so if I missed an important mail, I can still spot the problem and fix it. I am in control.

To get back to the original question, I have often found that analyzing the headers helps determine the best formula to thwart a particular type of spam. Because some persistent spammers use the same scripts, same machines again and again. The only thing that changes is their template, and the IP address because they keep rotating them and switch from one host to another (hello intrust !). But some patterns remain over time.
I am still getting a bit of spam but less and less, now it's a very small percentage of the hundreds of mails I get per day.

One final note:
Years ago, I rented out a dedi server but I found out that the default configuration was not optimal at all. For example, the PTR/DNS settings I've mentioned were not set. So spamassassin was doing all the work and processing spam that should have been rejected before it even had a chance to enter the mail server. The setup was not optimal and placing a heavy, unnecessary load on the server. What I mean is, whichever server you use is perhaps not fine-tuned as it should be.

 

[GeorgeK]

Google's algorithms for detecting spam are very good. Get Google Apps for Domains:

http://www.google.com/work/apps/business/pricing.html

and you can use it with your own domain name ($50/yr). You can use filters, and create aliases, so that certain messages never go to the spam folder (e.g. a registrar-specific email address you create, or whitelisting a certain "from" address).

 

[DomainsInc]

how do you manage to get so much spam? not even an address i've had since 1997 and signed up with sooo much stuff over the years gets that much.

 

[JuniperPark]

Thanks for all of the info, I'll check this out!

 

[draggar]

Honestly for me gmail has worked the best - great spam filter but you can see the spam emails incase you miss something.

 

[ISPCircle]

We would recommend a couple of solutions for such issues:

1. Get Domains Whois Privacy enabled to protect your email address in Whois lookups.
2. If you are hosting your email, invest in an anti-spam solution after some research.
3. If spam still reaches your inbox apart from tweaking your anti-spam filter, you should look at SpamBayes for Outlook and ThunderBird's native junk filter, Both will need training.

 

[JuniperPark]

ISPCircle, we are domain sellers at this forum --- Whois privacy is the worst thing a seller could possibly do.

But unfortunately, it does open the gate to spam.

 

[Alan Glennon]

I've had success with paid email from both Google (Apps for Business) and Microsoft (Office 365 Enterprise). You also might investigate MailRoute -- your problem seems to be what their business is all about.

 

[Johnn]

Here is what I do with Spam.

The Spamwich
Because of it’s rectangular-size and because it’s so easy to slice, SPAM can easily be used for a sandwich. You can make whatever type of sandwich you want with SPAM, but I highly recommend that you cook your SPAM first. It is a hassle and not necessary because Spam is already cooked, but Spam is just not the same treat we all know and love when it comes straight from the can.

When cooking Spam, I recommend just frying it in a pan over low to medium heat. Spam naturally has a lot of fat, which will melt and lubricate the pan when it is heated. Ideally, you want your Spam a crimson color, with a crispy outside.

 

[ISPCircle]

ISPCircle, we are domain sellers at this forum --- Whois privacy is the worst thing a seller could possibly do.

But unfortunately, it does open the gate to spam.

Domain sellers could also use Whois Privacy and let the parking page allow the buyer to see the price and initiate purchase.

 

[JuniperPark]

Domain sellers could also use Whois Privacy and let the parking page allow the buyer to see the price and initiate purchase.

Not everyone will go look for the parking page, and if they do, they lose 10%-15% of the sale to the parking company.

 

[domainoid]

some parking services allow buyers to contact sellers directly on the parked page.
if a deal closes your parking service gets nothing in fees as they did not take part in your deal.