SPAM! How to reduce?

BigPete

Senior member
May 28, 2001
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I am currently using Thunderbird 1.5 and I get about 15 spam emails a day. This may not be a lot but its very annoying especially since, for some reason, about 2/3 of those have a timestamp from last year and they go to the bottom of my emails.

Most of the offers are for (I assume) pirated software, fake drugs, and fake watches. However, even though the emails look identical, headers show EVERY email coming from a different place, so blocking just based on source is not going to work.

What do you guys recommend for getting rid of some of this garbage? Should I use Thunderbirds built in junk mail filters? If so, is there guide or something that shows you how to set it up so that its actually effective? What about 3rd party apps? I prefer open-source, or free, but I am open to pay options as well.

Thanks.
 

Wnh5001

Senior member
Dec 1, 2005
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im using an university email and i have the same problem, i get like 1-2 spam emails every 2 days and i would like to get rid of it. although i dont think there is a different solution then using the junk filters options if u have it...
 

WT

Diamond Member
Sep 21, 2000
4,816
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Well you already have Thunderbird, why not just turn on its junk mail filters and let it do its job ??? Pete, you have the key ... now open the door !!! Its as easy as that. It does a nice job, dumping 90% of that crap right off the bat, and learns from the ones that get through that you manually mark as junk.
 

Jasiek

Member
Jan 4, 2006
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I just try to unsubsribe as often as I can. But gmail has a spam folder anyway so i delete it all.
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
30,699
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Originally posted by: Jasiek
I just try to unsubsribe as often as I can. But gmail has a spam folder anyway so i delete it all.
Unsubscribing is Mistake #2. Who knows what Mistake #1 is? :D
 

BigPete

Senior member
May 28, 2001
729
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Thanks guys. I am going to give the Thunderbird junk mail controls a shot and see what happens. I guess my only real concern is that something legit will be flagged as junk and I will miss something important.

Either way, I have K9 and SpamBayes bookmarked just in case. ;)
 

John

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: BigPete
Thanks guys. I am going to give the Thunderbird junk mail controls a shot and see what happens. I guess my only real concern is that something legit will be flagged as junk and I will miss something important.

Either way, I have K9 and SpamBayes bookmarked just in case. ;)

All you have to do is check the junk folder on occasion and add the good emails to you safe sender's list.

 

Hersh

Senior member
Oct 14, 1999
331
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One of my email addresses which I have been using since 1999 gets around 600 spam emails in a 24 hour period. I currently use and have been using for about three years straight POPfile (popfile.sf.net) which basically is a server running on my computer filtering emails (mail server -> popfile -> email client). So far, according to the stats, it has caught 22,503 emails. Out of 23,599 emails, it has only mis-classified 140 of them so reliability is currently at 99.4%. It's not foolproof but I just have all spam messages tagged and trashed as spam. Twice every day, I scan through the spam emails to see if it catches anything non-spam.
 

Seeruk

Senior member
Nov 16, 2003
986
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My Computer Never EVER Receives Spam - EVER !!

You know why?? Cos I am not stupid enough to register for any site, any company, and newsgroup with my real email address. That's what hotmail addresses are for :)

On the odd occasion i do log onto hotmail ... its always got about 3000 emails in the junk mail folder and about another 1000 it hasnt caught in the main inbox :)
 

Malladine

Diamond Member
Mar 31, 2003
4,618
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OT: Will thunderbird pull in all emails from another client such as outlook express?
 

WT

Diamond Member
Sep 21, 2000
4,816
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Malladine - yes it will. The importer is very handy, and imports messages, address book and the email account settings. I'm amazed that so many people love Firefox but haven't given Thunderbird a try yet. And as far as flagging a good message as junk, if the person is in your address book, they will never be marked as junk. I can think of one occasion that Thunderbird marked a message incorrectly so far. I believe it was the AT forum thread reply email that sent about 12 messages very rapidly (Off Topic discussion generates some fast posting) and it marked that as spam due to the number in such a short period of time.
 
Jan 27, 2002
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Originally posted by: mechBgon
Unsubscribing is Mistake #2. Who knows what Mistake #1 is? :D

Ooooo! Meee! I do!

Subscribing to "Free content" websites?

You silly boys for highlighting your browsing habits :p

 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
27,370
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Get an ISP that provides spam blocking - mine uses Nationwide's Can-It by Roaring Penguin. Spam never gets past my POP3 box. It also blocks all viruses and worms. Earthlink has a good one - and so does AOL. So do Cox and Comcast.
 

kamper

Diamond Member
Mar 18, 2003
5,513
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Originally posted by: mechBgon
Originally posted by: Jasiek
I just try to unsubsribe as often as I can. But gmail has a spam folder anyway so i delete it all.
Unsubscribing is Mistake #2. Who knows what Mistake #1 is? :D
I'm gonna go with "viewing images in the email."