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How to stop (or at least reduce) mailing list spam

Question: How do I stay on my mailing list but stop getting these spam messages!!?!?!? This is the third one I have received. Argh!

Answer: As spammers get more clever, fewer messages have the obvious spam tell-tale signs that trigger UVM's spam detection software, PureMessage. In this case, PureMessage was only 37% confident that the message was indeed spam. Here's its thinking, embedded in the hidden message headers:

X-PureMessage-Spam: Gauge=XXXIIIIIII, Probability=37%, Report='PORN_PHRASE_8 4,
__CT 0, __CTYPE_HAS_BOUNDARY 0, __CTYPE_MULTIPART 0,
__CTYPE_MULTIPART_ALT 0, __EXTRA_MPART_TYPE_1 0,
__EXTRA_MPART_TYPE_N1 0, __GENERAL_MEDS_DRUGS_1 0,
__GENERAL_MEDS_DRUGS_45 0, __GENERAL_MEDS_DRUGS_TOTAL_1 0,
__GENERAL_MEDS_DRUGS_TOTAL_2 0, __HAS_MSGID 0,
__HAS_MSMAIL_PRI 0, __HAS_X_MAILER 0, __HAS_X_PRIORITY 0,
__MIME_HTML 0, __MIME_VERSION 0, __SANE_MSGID 0,
__TAG_EXISTS_HTML 0'

List owners will testify how much spam gets stopped before going out to lists, but there's still a bunch that gets through.

There are two things you can do, one for yourself and one for humanity in general.

1. Lower the threshold above which PureMessage automatically routes messages to your spam folder. Setting it at 50 (currently the lowest setting available without special fiddling) would not quite catch the message in question, but it would perhaps get more than you're catching now (I have mine set at 60, but I keep lowering it). To set it: http://www.uvm.edu/account Click on "Manage your Spam and Virus settings."
2. Often a human can detect spam better than software. You can train the software by sending spam to is-spam@sophos.com.

If many people are seeing real spam -- and few false positives -- with PureMessage ratings below 50, the spam control setting (#1, above) can be expanded so one can select ratings below 50.

As a third option, the Thunderbird email program does a good job of identifying spam. You can use that feature to banish or to help you quickly delete suspected spam.

To change your spam settings visit the UVM account page. For more help with spam, contact the CIT Helpline.

Last modified July 12 2005 06:56 PM