[KLUG Members] junk mail filters

[Mike Williams]

Jason Edward Durrett wrote:
> In the past month I have noticed a increase in legitimate mail not
> getting to the intended recipients because  of client side junk
> filters.  I have seen this even with emails that are replies to emails
> that other people have sent.
>
> Now, it could be that the excuse "It was sent to my Junk Mail so I did
> not get it" is replacing the "I got stuck in traffic" excuse, but it
> seems more widespread especially with Outlook - especially replies
> getting sent to Junk.  However, I have seen it as a problem with all
> client filters. 
>
> Does anyone else have this problem?  Does anyone know of a way to get a
> notification if a message is moved to Junk?  I am fairly sure there is
> not but it does not hurt to ask.
>
>   
I don't have a solution suggestion, but I'll take a wild guess at the 
cause:  filters getting confused by a technique called Bayesian 
Poisoning.  Bayesian Filtering is where you (the user) tell the filters 
what is spam and what is not, and it learns to identify it.  This trick 
has been successful enough that spam campaigns have started trying to 
confuse it by inserting phrases that are not commonly found in 
advertisements (bits of poetry, literary quotes, and other strange 
things) into the spam email.  The more of this that you tell your 
Bayesian filter is spam, the more likely it will get confused and 
quarantine something legitimate or let something through. 

Filters are not perfect, and all they can do is have false positive and 
false negative rates that are "as low as possible".  Spam campaigns keep 
getting sneakier, and unless there is a major change in the way the 
Internet works, it will always be a battle between those who are trying 
to keep it out and those who are trying to sneak it in.