This topic

Spam filter not working

sandy88 — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 22:32:33 GMT

I'm getting loads of spam emails which appear to come from dubious dating sites. They are going into my inbox, not even into the spam folder, but they shouldn't be getting through at all. I've never been near any dating sites, clicked any links in unknown emails or signed up for anything so I've no idea how they've got my email address. I keep reporting them as spam to BT and to the phishing site but it makes no difference. Why isn't the spam filter blocking them?

Re: Spam filter not working

NeilO — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 14:53:33 GMT

Hi, @sandy88 welcome to the community and thanks for posting. The majority of spam is blocked but it's impossible to stop them all, billions of spam emails are sent daily so it's a constant battle to block everything but you're doing the right thing by marking them as spam to help our filters improve.

Email addresses often end up on spam lists due to data breaches from legitimate companies that you may have dealt with in the past. One way to check if your email has ever been leaked is to enter it into the have I been pwned website https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Thanks

Neil

Re: Spam filter not working

sandy88 — Sun, 18 Dec 2022 15:33:14 GMT

I'm just surprised that emails with sexual words and content in the body and header and sometimes even the from address are getting through any spam filters, let alone arriving in my inbox several times a day.

Re: Spam filter not working

andydenyer — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 14:51:36 GMT

I have been marking as spam for MONTHS now emails arriving from e-mail addresses in the format:

newsletter@*.{abc} where abc is one of the following:

cfd

click

club

cyou

digital

fun

live

monster

online

quest

sbs

shop

site

skin

space

store

xyz

But the spam filters are faling to learn.

Given the oh so obvious pattern of these, I would have thought it would be a very easy thing to do to write a small script to stop these getting through.

Are there ANY legitimate domains ending in any of the names I have quoted above?

Unfortunately, BT Mail doesn't provide an option to block domains in the format *.xyz etc. - you can only block them at the level following the @ symbol (for which I must have added hundreds by now).

Re: Spam filter not working

Andy_N — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 14:48:36 GMT

@andydenyerwrote:
I have been marking as spam for MONTHS now emails arriving from e-mail addresses in the format:
newsletter@*.{abc} where abc is one of the following:
..
But the spam filters are faling to learn.
Given the oh so obvious pattern of these, I would have thought it would be a very easy thing to do to write a small script to stop these getting through.
It might be easy to do it, and looks obvious to you and I - but to do it on a global scale/ISP isn't as straightforward. SImply blocking these items isn't the way the anti-spam systems work - and shouldn't.
Are there ANY legitimate domains ending in any of the names I have quoted above?
Yes
Unfortunately, BT Mail doesn't provide an option to block domains in the format *.xyz etc. - you can only block them at the level following the @ symbol (for which I must have added hundreds by now).

Most dedicated mail clients can do this - and can move those emails to a seperate folder ready for easy deletion.

Re: Spam filter not working

andydenyer — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 12:19:19 GMT

Yes, I have been setting rules to send them to a separate folder (the rules themselves are very easy to construct given the simple pattern of these, which is why I don't understand why BT is incapable of writing such a script). But I would rather have a way of blocking them altogether.

Re: Spam filter not working

Andy_N — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 19:09:02 GMT

@andydenyerwrote:
Yes, I have been setting rules to send them to a separate folder (the rules themselves are very easy to construct given the simple pattern of these, which is why I don't understand why BT is incapable of writing such a script).

But that is the issue - it is easy to write a personal script to do what you personally require, but to utilise a similar script on an ISP scale isn't the correct way to do it as that could cause massive issues with many people not requiring such scripts.

Re: Spam filter not working

andydenyer — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 19:45:11 GMT

So you're saying that there are people that WANT to receive all these scam emails from these particular domains? OK, fine.

Re: Spam filter not working

Andy_N — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 14:57:08 GMT

@andydenyerwrote:
So you're saying that there are people that WANT to receive all these scam emails from these particular domains? OK, fine.

No, I am not saying that at all. I am saying that writing scripts for ISP level email is not as simple as it is for a single user - and is not the way anti-spam systems work.

Re: Spam filter not working

andydenyer — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 18:07:57 GMT

Yes, I do actually understand how anti-spam systems work, including the limitations of them.

Re: Spam filter not working

sam63 — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 10:38:34 GMT

Just following this thread I see that I am not alone in experiencing this problem. 4 months ago we suddenly started receiving spam emails on one of our addressess - one which is only used for friends and some local organisations. As an ex IT person I always access our emails first on BT's server and so set up rules as well marking these emails as spam - yet still they arrive direct into the inbox - on some days over 20. The farce is that almost all the senders have what appears to be an eastern European (or further east) name; the subjects almost always contain the words 'sex', 'dating', 'photos' in many cases are actually in some foreign script and in some cases are just gobbledygook!! Despite doing everything BT advise me to do they still keep coming direct into the inbox. I understand the issues arising due to the sheer volume of spam but, certainly in our case, there is nothing remotely 'normal' about any of the emails which we receive yet they keep coming.

Re: Spam filter not working

sam63 — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 10:38:00 GMT

The reply that the majority of spam is blocked is, in my case, absolute nonsense. Over a 4 month period my wife's email address (only used by a few freinds) was inundated with up to 30 obviously sexual emails and ALL from abroad, often in mid-Eiropean or Far eastern script. I marked every email throughout this period as Spam but they still kept going direct to her Inbox with the very occasional one going to Spam. It was so bad we had to change her address. Now the same thing is happening with my main address - these are either all foreign and blatently sexual or some spurious site saying that I have won something. Everyone marked as Spam but still they come. A simple option for people like me would to be able to block anything in a foreign language i.e. non English but this does not seem possible. After being with BT for ever I think it may be time to change!

Re: Spam filter not working

sam63 — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 10:40:39 GMT

May sound a reasonable solution if you know how to write the script!!! Again, this is a BT issue and I doubt that they care.

Re: Spam filter not working

Andy_N — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 10:07:43 GMT

@sam63wrote:
Just following this thread I see that I am not alone in experiencing this problem. 4 months ago we suddenly started receiving spam emails on one of our addressess - one which is only used for friends and some local organisations.

The issue could well be down to your contacts themselves being compromised in some way, and hence your email address is collateral damage by no fault of your own.

Marking them as spam can take time, and simply blocking the email address "sender" won't work.

There will be potentially 1000s of spam emails blocked before getting anywhere near anyone's account due to the anti-spam systems. Of course, getting 10s a day looks like the system isn't working for you personally.

Re: Spam filter not working

andydenyer — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 21:34:52 GMT

Well, I've started getting a lot more of these again the past few days, particularly from domains ending .cfd and .sbs

Looks like I'm going to have a write a few more rules myself to block these to supplement BT's spam filters!