[KLUG Members] junk mail filters

[Jason Edward Durrett]

Mike Williams wrote:
> 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.
> _______________________________________________

You are quite right with the problem.   There is another problem, though
- and that is how to make sure email continues to be a reliable form of
communication.  It seems to me that the filters are making email less
reliable - does anyone know of a client side filter that alerts the
sender that the message is never going to be read?