mac email spam outburst

October 29, 2005 7:37 PM

A sudden increase in spam making it past my email client's filters. I'm on a Mac using "Mail" for my email program. Up until three days ago, my junk filter caught all but a couple of spam emails. Now, for some reason, about ten times more spam emails seem to be making it past my filters. Any ideas why this is or how I can get back to a better signal-to-noise ratio?
posted by sharksandwich to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

I've noticed this happens with Mail.app. Open the preferences menu and go to the junk mail tab. Hit the reset button and put things back into training mode. You'll have to deal with that for a couple days, but you'll be better off in the end.
posted by about_time at 7:59 PM on October 29, 2005

I've actually noticed the opposite problem with mail.app lately where it is throwing non-spam into the spam folder.
posted by birdherder at 8:02 PM on October 29, 2005

I'm getting quite an influx of spam recently on my Mac. My filters are catching the same amount, but I've got a lot more coming into my regular mailbox.
Wonder if a new spam mailing list has made it's way around the 'net.
posted by idiotfactory at 8:19 PM on October 29, 2005

It's a general increase, I think.... I don't use a mac, and I've seen plenty of increase through spamassassin (which I use before stuff even gets to the client...)
posted by twiggy at 8:49 PM on October 29, 2005

I've had a bit of an increase too. I'm just flagging it and assuming the filter will learn sooner or later.
posted by jmgorman at 8:50 PM on October 29, 2005

You don't need to "reset" as about_time stated. Just flag the offending emails as spam and it will add to the filter's "learning".
posted by qwip at 9:03 PM on October 29, 2005

It ain't just Macs. Recently asked.
posted by Count Ziggurat at 9:03 PM on October 29, 2005

Response by poster: Of course I am flagging these new pieces as spam, but I have no idea how this normally "flagged" stuff is getting through my filters...
posted by sharksandwich at 9:21 PM on October 29, 2005

interestingly enough, there's one kind of spam that always makes it thru Mail.app's spam filters (at least for me)... its those damn "rolex" ads. there's a gif at the top with the rolex and a bunch of text at the bottom. i dont know what's special about these mails.

supposedly apple's anti-spam stuff is based on technology they developed to search knowledge base articles, so its fairly unique. i think you can add bayesian filtering with a number of add-ons... junkmatcher comes to mind.
posted by joeblough at 11:03 PM on October 29, 2005

What is it with "rolex" ads? Have the tailgate salesmen come in from the cold and brought their "rolex" stock with them? It seems such a change from the drugs without a prescription spam that I got all summer.
Perhaps it is because the holidays are coming. Tis the season to give loved ones a stolen or knock-off present.
posted by Cranberry at 1:13 AM on October 30, 2005

I really must suggest SpamSieve. A very effective use of $25.
posted by Wild_Eep at 5:11 AM on October 30, 2005 [1 favorite]

Here is another option...Using Gmail as a Spam Filter.
posted by boost ventilator at 5:26 AM on October 30, 2005

I second Wild_Eep's suggestion. I've tried mail.app's built-in spam blocker and junkmatcher. Neither can compare to SpamSieve.
posted by lackutrol at 11:03 AM on October 30, 2005

These are getting through GMail's spam filter too so boost ventilator's suggestion might not work
posted by blag at 11:52 AM on October 30, 2005

When my total incoming spam hit about 200/day, much of it got past Spamassassin, so I started using Gmail as a second line of defence.

Now I'm getting about 300/day (curiously, a huge fraction of which is in Korean). I only get 2-3 false negatives/day, but I've also been able to find about 2-3 false positives/week--some of which are borderline (notification sent to many people, uses HTML) and some of which aren't remotely borderline. But Gmail's spamfiltering is pretty effective.
posted by adamrice at 2:09 PM on October 30, 2005