Anti-Spam Confusion

ESS' Anti-Spam module places both Spam and Spam Address buttons in its Windows Mail toolbar. I can't figure out which button is the appropriate one to click for spam emails that are not caught (filtered) and end-up in my Inbox - this happens a lot and ESS' Bayes Filter doesn't seem to be learning!

Would someone please explain the difference (in action taken) between those two buttons? ...what I'm doing isn't working because I'm not making any headway in reducing the large number of spam emails arriving in my Inbox every day!

 

Hi Aaron Here,
I'm fairly new to ESS myself, but I think I can answer your questions.

If you receive something you ID as spam, highlight it, and click the "Spam Address" button, it adds the address from which the message was sent, to your list of addresses known to send spam. Thereafter, anything you receive from that address will automatically be classified as spam, sent to your Eset Antispam folder, and you don't see it in your Inbox.

If you've ID'd a message as spam, highlight and click the "Spam" button, it moves the message to your Eset Antispam folder, but does nothing with the address from which it was sent.

I'm not sure why ESET chose to set up this feature with both (all 4 buttons). But it does allow for a user to continue to receive in their Inbox, mail from an address which sometimes sends spam and sometimes doesn't. I know I have an uncle whose address I would not want to block, because I do want to get his messages. But sometimes he sends those annoying kind of joke photos that get circulated around the internet, harvesting email addresses for spammers along the way. So then when I get such a message from him, I highlight it, click the Spam button, and the message is moved to the Eset Antispam folder. But as a Trusted Address, I still receive mail in my Inbox from him.

I have to admit, I'm not exactly sure why the "Not Spam" and "Trusted Address" buttons are there, aside from reversing the "Spam" and "Spam Addresses" buttons' actions. I guess "Not Spam" is to move messages which were initially classified as spam, to the Inbox, where they belong. And I suppose "Trusted Addresses" is to identify addresses from which one wants to receive mail, even though some of it may be spam -- like the example I gave about my uncle.

You might want to check with your email provider. Sometimes a user can change their provider's defailt spam settings. That way, a lot of it can be trapped before it ever gets to you. Granted you have to check their spam folder, because they're not perfect either, and might occassionally trap non-spam.

There might be other things you can do to reduce the amount of spam you're getting. Here are some links to organizations which fight spam. Their articles are really quite informative!

HOAXBUSTERS!
FTC Spam Homepage
SpamCop.net

 

Thanks for the reply - it's most appreciated. However, I still would like to know which button (if any) trains the Bayesian filter to recognize the type of message (subject, etc.) as spam.

 

Hhhhm....that I can't answer.
I will admit here that I don't know much about the Bayes filter. And hopefully others will reply, who know more about it.

But meanwhile, can you provide a little more information? When you say it's not working, it's not learning, and it's not reducing the amount of spam you receive, can you be more specific? Can you give some examples? Exactly what is happening that indicates to you that it's not working?

I guess what I'm trying to do with these questions, is determine specifically what your expectations are. I'm wondering if you may have a misunderstanding of how the filter is supposed to work. And again, as I said, I don't know it works. But with this information, I'm sure someone who does understand it, can explain it for you.

I'm sorry, I wish I could be more help But surely someone else will come along who can explain things for you.

All best

 

Most of the spam I receive has the words 'Viagra' and/or 'Cialis' in the Subject. I thought that ESS' Bayes filter would quickly learn to consider those emails as spam via my frequent clicking of the Spam & Spam Address buttons, but that hasn't happened.

I probably could use the junk mail filter in MS Office Outlook and Windows Mail to prevent those emails from entering my Inbox, but after weeks of highlighting those emails and clicking on ESS' Spam & Spam Address buttons why isn't its Bayes filter recognizing those subject types as spam?

 

Ok then, here we have reached the point where I can't help at all. Someone with knowledge about how the spam filter works, please reply

Sorry I can't be more help, Aaron Here.
Good luck!

 

Aaron, your questions reflect my situation as well, so if there's anyone here who has the answers please help us by explaining how to best train the Bayesian filter.

 

when I hoover over the button in outlook 2007 here is what I get....

The first Spam button is to classify a message as SPAM
The next button Not Spam is for declassifying a message as not SPAM
The next button Spam Address is to set the address as a SPAM address so all messages recvd from it will go to the SPAM folder you select (blacklist).
The next button is Trusted Address - this will make no mail from that address go to your SPAM folder no matter what its score is (whitelist).

Now you can also open any message and Selecct ESET Smart Security and a menu will appear... at the bottom you can blacklist/whitelist any email address....

Does this help?

 

Not really - as I can see that as well and it still doesn't answer my question (and Jo Ann's) re training the Bayesian filter ....but thanks for trying.

 

sorry, I know other programs will let you adjust the score and even set the filter to 3rd party databases but ESS seems to not allow that. I guess to retrain the database it would be to remove and reinstall the package....


There really is nothing in the advanced setup for this but you can go in and modify/add/remove addresses on the b or w list