Comments on: Spam tops 80% of all email http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/ Tips and add-ons to make Apple Mail / Mail.app even better Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:23:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Alex von der Goltz http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/comment-page-1/#comment-29959 Alex von der Goltz Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:05:26 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/#comment-29959 Yep, spam filters have strenghts and weaknesses in languages too. For example Korean or asian languages are notoriously hard to filter Yep, spam filters have strenghts and weaknesses in languages too. For example Korean or asian languages are notoriously hard to filter

]]> By: Tim http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/comment-page-1/#comment-29942 Tim Tue, 24 Oct 2006 22:54:16 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/#comment-29942 It looks like I am just lucky, then, from all these comments. Nice for me :) @FJ -- Interesting about the English-centric nature of spam engines. I hadn't considered that before. It looks like I am just lucky, then, from all these comments. Nice for me :)

@FJ — Interesting about the English-centric nature of spam engines. I hadn’t considered that before.

]]> By: Patrick Taylor http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/comment-page-1/#comment-29899 Patrick Taylor Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:16:39 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/#comment-29899 Sadly, I'm up to 68% spam or roughly 3600 spam messages since October 1st, if it wasn't for Spamsieve I'd be completely lost. BTW, unknown users account for none of that amount. Sadly, I’m up to 68% spam or roughly 3600 spam messages since October 1st, if it wasn’t for Spamsieve I’d be completely lost. BTW, unknown users account for none of that amount.

]]> By: Alex von der Goltz http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/comment-page-1/#comment-29836 Alex von der Goltz Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:25:35 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/#comment-29836 Dont forget a lot of spam services classify mail to unkown users as SPAM (so a directory harvest attack which no one with a valid email account would see - is counted as spam) We use www.reflexion.net and it separates mail to unkown users from spam. Gross numbers are roughly 85% is mail to unknown users and less than 10% of the volume is spam. Approx 5% of the volume is valid mail. This number is being calculated against 30M messages. Dont forget a lot of spam services classify mail to unkown users as SPAM (so a directory harvest attack which no one with a valid email account would see – is counted as spam) We use http://www.reflexion.net and it separates mail to unkown users from spam. Gross numbers are roughly 85% is mail to unknown users and less than 10% of the volume is spam. Approx 5% of the volume is valid mail. This number is being calculated against 30M messages.

]]> By: Michael http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/comment-page-1/#comment-29803 Michael Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:28:18 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/#comment-29803 I run a mail server that processes ~5 million messages a day. Of those, we throw out 3.5 million, while delivering the rest. I am pretty conservative, much preferring a false negative to a false positive, so the only complaints I get are about too much spam getting through. I would say the Postini numbers are a bit high, but not outlandishly so. I would imagine they are pretty accurate for a large ISP, like AOL or Yahoo, with a high churn rate on accounts. I run a mail server that processes ~5 million messages a day. Of those, we throw out 3.5 million, while delivering the rest. I am pretty conservative, much preferring a false negative to a false positive, so the only complaints I get are about too much spam getting through.

I would say the Postini numbers are a bit high, but not outlandishly so. I would imagine they are pretty accurate for a large ISP, like AOL or Yahoo, with a high churn rate on accounts.

]]> By: Michael Houghton http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/comment-page-1/#comment-29800 Michael Houghton Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:21:00 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/#comment-29800 I should add, JunkMatcher does a top notch job of dealing with it all - thanks for passing on the news about it. I should add, JunkMatcher does a top notch job of dealing with it all – thanks for passing on the news about it.

]]> By: Michael Houghton http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/comment-page-1/#comment-29799 Michael Houghton Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:19:38 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/#comment-29799 Hmm. You are lucky. Fully 95% of my email to one of my addresses is spam. The percentage has crept up consistently over time - I've had the email address for almost a decade. My other addresses get almost none, because I rarely, if ever, use them in forums or on websites which won't protect them. I have one old email address which gets no legitimate email and a steady trickle of spam - because I used it to sign up for information about a single piece of software eight years ago, then later unsubscribed from their own information list, leaving me only on the lists of those they sold my details to. That would be 100%, right? :) Hmm. You are lucky. Fully 95% of my email to one of my addresses is spam. The percentage has crept up consistently over time – I’ve had the email address for almost a decade. My other addresses get almost none, because I rarely, if ever, use them in forums or on websites which won’t protect them.

I have one old email address which gets no legitimate email and a steady trickle of spam – because I used it to sign up for information about a single piece of software eight years ago, then later unsubscribed from their own information list, leaving me only on the lists of those they sold my details to. That would be 100%, right? :)

]]> By: FJ http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/comment-page-1/#comment-29782 FJ Tue, 24 Oct 2006 10:31:29 +0000 http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/10/24/spam-tops-80-of-all-email/#comment-29782 We did rely in the past on Postini to protect part of our clients. They do an excellent job at catching English SPAM so I would assume - provided no marketing hysteria has influenced the numbers they publish - that their statistics are accurate. Unfortunately, their engine used to fail rather catastrophically with other languages - a lot of French in our case - so it would be interesting to know whether their statistics are as precise as they claim for Euro-Junk. Still, an interesting report and a very interesting post! We did rely in the past on Postini to protect part of our clients. They do an excellent job at catching English SPAM so I would assume – provided no marketing hysteria has influenced the numbers they publish – that their statistics are accurate. Unfortunately, their engine used to fail rather catastrophically with other languages – a lot of French in our case – so it would be interesting to know whether their statistics are as precise as they claim for Euro-Junk. Still, an interesting report and a very interesting post!

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