I thought putting this in Tech over Lounge/Chit Chat might get a more realistic response...

I'm doing some marketing research for a group that's developing new technology for group administrators as well as individuals on home systems to fight email SPAM. So I want to know, what are some of the problems that frustrate you most with SPAM in your email (other than the fact, that it was unsolicited)?

Things like: you've tried using filters from your security software and SPAM still gets around it, you've tried setting up your own filters from an email client like Outlook, anything!

Thanks y'all... any input may help shape technology to help you keep your email inbox clean one day!

2/25/2007 9:37:59 PM

The fact that it tricks me! More like, if you block an e-mail address it doesnt do much good. Spam filters dont catch it all and catch a lot of stuff you actually want to see

2/25/2007 9:42:36 PM

that it pushes me over quota

2/25/2007 10:26:01 PM

there is no reason to get spam anymore.
i don't get any, so it doesn't bother me.

Gmail let's maybe 2 spams through a month, while my spam folder fills up at a rate of dozens per day.
At work, i've never gotten a single spam message in Outlook.

2/25/2007 10:26:36 PM

where does all that spam come from? russia? nigeria?

2/25/2007 10:29:31 PM

^^agreed

2/25/2007 10:40:32 PM

^, ^^^ do you mind me asking if you're taking any preventative measures to prevent it or if it's provided by work networks, etc.?

2/25/2007 10:47:34 PM

i have no idea what my IT department does at work to help stop or prevent spam. I work for a large, multi-national company (12,000+), so we have several Exchange servers set up thoughout the world, and of course firewalls and VPNs and all that.
I have no idea if they have big filters set up on the Exchange servers or what.

Probably the biggest reason I don't receive spam or junk mail at work is that I have never, not once in 3 years, given out my work email address to anyone outside the company unless it was directly work related. I don't sign up for newsletters or start accounts with my work address. It is strictly for work only. Probably the biggest reason people get spam at work is because they mix their work and personal addresses, which is their own fault.

2/25/2007 10:57:01 PM

^^ Google's spam filter works pretty well. I usually get about one or two spam emails a day that sneak thru (of around 50 or so which are caught in the filter), which isn't that bad. They're usually nonsensical shit (that's the only thing that can get thru the filter these days)... stuff like "bam moon the ball stick sister" and such. I don't even know why they send them.

Preventative measures are just not using your work email or whatever important email for signing up for anything on the internet.

2/25/2007 11:01:11 PM

THUNDERBIRD FTW

between using spam assassin's definitions and adaptive junk mail filtering, i dont have any problem with spam at home.

my only problem is my wife is less careful with giving out email addresses so we get a lot of opt-in crap. but THUNDERBIRD adaptive junk mail filters sorts all that out for me.

i may see one true spam email per week, but that's about it.

and no, i dont get any spam at work. i dont give out my work email address to anyone thats not strictly work related.

2/25/2007 11:05:31 PM

^ yeah, that too. best case scenario, if you want to use an email client instead of gmail webmail, download gmail into thunderbird. If gmail happens to let anything through, TB will catch it.
If you don't use gmail, thunderbird will catch most everything after a few days of learning.

2/25/2007 11:18:38 PM

Thanks y'all... this is really good stuff

keep it comin'!

[Edited on February 25, 2007 at 11:28 PM. Reason : ...]

2/25/2007 11:27:58 PM

The thing that bothers me most about spam (its not an acronym, no need to capitalize) is the fact that some people actually click on the links and buy products from spam messages. If no one ever bought crap that was advertised in a spam message, then eventually spam would go away.

Spam isn't created for the enjoyment of the sender. While there is a very very low cost of sending it, spam is generally sent to earn a profit. If it wasn't profitable, it would stop.

2/25/2007 11:43:12 PM

gmail fixed this problem - use their solution

2/26/2007 12:01:02 AM

i get a few a day at work, and I'm actually surprised that I don't get more. I work direclty with customers outside the company, which get forwarded all over the place (found one posted on a tech forum elsewhere), so I'm pretty vulnerable that way. But between luck and undoubted high powered spam mitigation on our mail servers, I don't see more than 3 or 4 a day (out of a couple hundred or so work related emails).

2/26/2007 12:17:22 AM

Quote :

"where does all that spam come from? russia? nigeria? "

Most spam originates from the US.

2/26/2007 2:18:20 AM

I hate that the title reads that its gonna be kick ass porn...but it never is

2/26/2007 5:52:45 PM

^^ heh, and one of the biggest spammers was from Cary.

2/26/2007 9:41:14 PM

^^^ have stats links/stats on that?

http://postini.com/stats/world-spam-2048.jpg
http://www.ciphertrust.com/resources/statistics/spam_sources.php
http://news.com.com/Most+spam+still+coming+from+the+U.S./2100-1029_3-6030758.html

doesn't look like a majority of the spam comes from the us. though it appears the us is the largest contributer.

2/26/2007 10:54:42 PM

http://www.cloudmark.com/desktop/

ftw

2/26/2007 10:55:20 PM

just moved our company over to exchange 2003 r2 and way too much shit goes to junk e-mail when it shouldn't

2/26/2007 10:58:36 PM

my old road runner email address used to get tons of spam every day. but since i switched to gmail a while back i've had 0 problems with spam..i get maybe 2 or 3 messages a day in the spam folder and i always delete it immediatly so it doesn't fill up.

What i hate about spam is that you start skipping over emails and just selecting everything to delete and you might actually miss something that was legit or important from someone you know.

2/26/2007 11:15:46 PM

i don't like how they use religious phrases such as "God Almighty" in spams. I think that might annoy a lot of other religious people.

2/27/2007 8:37:29 AM