Re: spam mail filter

[Shachar Shemesh]

Stanislav Malyshev wrote:

DH>> > Are you kidding? this would -
DH>> > Of course, the problem is someone would have to BE this
DH>> > central authority, and we'd have to trust it not to misuse all of our
DH>> > addresses...
DH>>
DH>> What about spamcop:  http://spamcop.net/

I once tried to understand how they are filtering the mail and what
exactly are their procedures from both sides - i.e., what algorithms they
use to filter mail?

Not sure about their mail filtering.

How can I configure it?

At the very least, you have a white list. not sure what more.

What they do on spam complain
(that one I know - they send mail something like 'someone reported your
mail as spam' to the apparent source - which works like charm to annoy
maintainers of legitimate commercial mailing lists and would not bother
any hardcore spammer since they forge their headers or use throw-away
accounts on ISPs with overloaded triple-automated abuse@ addresses)?

You ask, and then answer incorrectly :-)
They send their reports to the upstream ISPs from the place the spam originated. They have pretty impressive algorithms to handle forged headers too. They scan the list of forwarders until it breaks (i.e. - until they reach a link that is impossible), and then they assume that's the real IP address and act accordingly.

How
do they resolve conflicts and what is their position on various
op-in/opt-out/double-opt-in issues?

Once I got a complaint from someone on a real opt-in list I was involved with. I just sent the list's address, and showed how the opt-in took place, and never heard from them again.

Their policy is pretty strict. If you report a list you did opt-in on, you are penalized. This can get as far as revoking your account. They take their false positives just as seriously as their false negatives. Also, they are real spam fighters. The fact that the mail calims that you opt-in does not really bother them.

I could not find any information on
this. Probably I didn't look hard enough - or they didn't work hard enough
to make their info accessible.

That depends on whether you have seen http://spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/1.html and found it dissatisfactory.

And without this info I don't see in them
any added value to my personal filter.

I have been a sporadic user of their free service, and I actually found on occasions that it managed to reduce the amounts of spam I get. I don't get enough spams to warrant a spam filter (will probably change now).

Shachar



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