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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:21 am 
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Over the past few months I have been receiving much more spam than usual. The WLM filter successfully sends it to my junk folder, but thus far eM Client does not. And as Steve told me years ago, setting up a black or blocked list doesn't do much good because spammers keep changing their address.

But my concern and question today is how is this spam reaching my mail box since it is not addressed to any of my email addresses. To illustrate, here is one I just received; as you can see, it is not addressed to me;
Attachment:
spam.JPG
spam.JPG [ 48.86 KiB | Viewed 10692 times ]

And if I look in more detail at the header info, here's what I get and no where am I shown as the recipient (the actual header is much longer and I searched it from end to end and my email address is never shown):
Attachment:
header.JPG
header.JPG [ 104.93 KiB | Viewed 10692 times ]


I'll be the first to admit that I don't understand all the info shown in the header, but for valid email my address is always shown.

So my concern/question is - why am I receiving these emails that are not even addressed to me? Thanks in advance....

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:59 pm 
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Your address would likely be in the BCC field, which is not presented to you in the headers due to the nature of BCC.

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 2:47 pm 
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Steve, that makes sense; however, many of the spam emails do show my address on the To: line.

So what can I do to stop this sudden influx of spam, which started well before I installed eM Client? Even WLM was letting a lot of spam reach my Inbox.

eM Client does not include spam filter options....they state that spam filtering should be done by the mail server. My ISP uses a webmail system powered by Zimbra, which I think in turn uses Spamassassin as it's spam filter. But when I examine this filter, it appears to require that I develop a black list. This would be a very tedious process, and you once stated on CH that such a list is pretty much useless because spammers keep changing their address.

What about a program like Mailwasher or Spamihilator? They advertise to stop spam before it gets to my computer. But do they also require that I develop a black list first?

Any suggestions? :dunno:

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:02 pm 
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If the spam has the same subject line or obvious content you can set up a rule. Go to Menu>Tools>Rules and create a new rule. You will have a selection of rule templates in the upper half of the dialog and input links in the bottom to define. You can set up rules to move stuff to trash or junk by selecting from people, words in subject and words in body. There are other templates but these are what you would likely want.

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:10 pm 
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Jay, if the spam has same subject line as what?

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:22 pm 
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bbarry wrote:
Jay, if the spam has same subject line as what?
Same subject line as other spam sends. Does not have to be exact, just a common phrase within the subject.

Say one group of spam sends contains the name of a drug in the subject and another has a different drug name. You would make two rules, one for each drug name.

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:45 pm 
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As I noted before, if the email program you are using does not have built in junk mail filtering capabilities, you should check to see if your mail provider has server based spam filtering that you can enable and configure. If not, then you are going to have to add another program to deal with spam and junk mail. I have no experience with any of the programs listed on this page, but you may want to check one or more out if spam is out of control and your email provider doesn't have spam filtering -- https://www.lifewire.com/top-free-spam- ... ws-1174416

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:11 pm 
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Thanks Steve....I'll review some of those programs.

As I mentioned above, my ISP uses a webmail system powered by Zimbra, which in turn uses Spamassassin as its spam filter. But when I examine this filter, it appears to require that I develop a black list.

In fact, it's looking like all the spam filters require that I develop a black list (or the equivalent). Yet you said many moons ago that this would be wasted effort since spammers frequently change addresses.

Are you now advising that I go ahead and start/use a black list?

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:35 pm 
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WOW! I didn't even know there were specific third party packages for spam filtering. I'll have to look a some.

As I always say when dealing with email and such listen to Steve first. That said I still think that setting up rules could help. For instance I used to get a couple of spam emails a day wanting me to hire them to do photo editing. I noticed that while some things changed one phrase in the body of the email was always the same. I set up a rule in Outlook to look for that phrase and send to my spam folder if found.

I set the rule to send to spam instead of trash as it would be possible for the phrase to be in an email from someone I was helping. Before I empty my spam folder I always check to make sure there is nothing there that is not actually spam. Site registrations are a problem in this regard as they are often seen as spam by filters.

Again trust Steve over me in anything dealing with email but setting rules work for me. At a guess I'd say that I don't get over ten spam emails a week. I don't exactly know what I did right but, at a guess, I get mayhaps ten spam emails a week and monitor four email accounts.

The thing that I wonder about is that I expected a large amount of spam when I switched from Outlook to eM Client and, so far, it just has not happened. With my Hotmail account I would guess that it may be due to being an Exchange server so it may be possible that, when I set a rule, it is included in the Exchange. My other three emails are through my hosting. My hosting will flag a suspected spam email and add "(SPAM)" to the subject line. It is then up to me to decide what to do with the email.

As to black lists they CAN help but I think it is less help than rules. Don't block the email address but, rather, block the email domain. Of course you must be careful about this and make sure that the domain is not something like Gmail that you would get proper emails. One trick in this aspect is to block an entire country. A LOT of spam comes out of Russia. To exclude any email from a Russian domain you would to to to the Rules setting in eM Client and select to modify the black list rule, just double click on that rule and enter '*.*.ru' and click on add. All emails sent from a Russian domain should now automatically be sent to the spam folder.

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:03 pm 
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Jay, I was getting an increased number of spam emails back when I was only using WLM. I didn't see a noticeable increase just because I switched to eM (BTW, eM is now my default email client, and Vivaldi my default browser).

I've never used rules before, but I'm about ready to try some if I can figure out all the logic involved (your notes are helping me understand). Preparing a black list seems like a waste of time. WLM always did a good job of sending spam to the junk folder without me ever doing anything. I will miss that program........

Speaking of WLM, you previously made the comment that you didn't purchase the eM upgrade package because you felt adequately protected with MBAM and Defender. Why wouldn't that same logic apply to WLM? Why would I need updates and security patches from Microsoft if I continued to use WLM with MBAM and Defender? Just curious......

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:16 pm 
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bbarry wrote:
Speaking of WLM, you previously made the comment that you didn't purchase the eM upgrade package because you felt adequately protected with MBAM and Defender. Why wouldn't that same logic apply to WLM? Why would I need updates and security patches from Microsoft if I continued to use WLM with MBAM and Defender? Just curious......

It is a matter of the bad guy's attack vectors. They are much more inclined to look at a Microsoft out of date program than a smaller third party package to attack. You would probably do fine with WLM and your security but this all started with your having display issues with WLM. You went to eM client to fix the display issue (I believe) and I went to eM Client to save money by being able to cancel my Office 365 subscription.

If you decide to try using some rules I'm sure that Steve and I can help you set up the rules if you post things that are common between the emails. Again, as I keep saying, trust Steve's advice on email matters over mine. LOL! If it were to be a hardware issue I may not make that statement but Steve is well beyond my knowledge of email and network issues. ;)

Oh, BTW, eM Client DOES allow for free updates for the program at the $49.95 price. I know this by the fact that I just re-started my main system and an update was advised. The restriction seems to be for major feature updates, not issues and security for the currently installed version.

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:32 pm 
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I agree that a black list is mostly a waste of time. What your mail provider should have is spam filtering that is augmented by a black list/white list. Basically, it should have rules to detect spam and you should be able to control how aggressive it is at following those rules. If it only relies on a black list/white list, then you'll need to use a 3rd party program or service (or switch email providers!)
As I noted, I have no experience with the programs I suggested for spam filtering, but as I reviewed the list to make sure I wasn't leading you to far astray I did not that many are reported to be relying on filtering logic and learned logic. That's much more than black lists and white lists, both of which are explicit rules to block or allow specific addresses or domains without applying any other filtering logic.
-steve

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:42 pm 
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I think that I'd probably try this program before any of the others, by the way -- https://www.spamihilator.com/en/
It's the first one on the list I provided earlier. The only downside I see with it is that it does not appear to have been updated for several years. The reason you don't see a whole lot of client side spam filtering is because most email providers handle this more efficiently and effectively at the server.

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:43 pm 
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sboots wrote:
I agree that a black list is mostly a waste of time. What your mail provider should have is spam filtering that is augmented by a black list/white list. Basically, it should have rules to detect spam and you should be able to control how aggressive it is at following those rules. If it only relies on a black list/white list, then you'll need to use a 3rd party program or service (or switch email providers!)
As I noted, I have no experience with the programs I suggested for spam filtering, but as I reviewed the list to make sure I wasn't leading you to far astray I did not that many are reported to be relying on filtering logic and learned logic. That's much more than black lists and white lists, both of which are explicit rules to block or allow specific addresses or domains without applying any other filtering logic.
-steve

Of course I would never even think about arguing with you on such stuff but I still have a question. With the outline you are saying does it not increase the chance that you would never see, through an email local client, such things as a confirmation email if you registered at a site such as CH? If someone were to register here is it not quite possible that the provider filter could see the confirmation email as spam and never allow it to get the the local email client?

I am absolutely not arguing with your advice. I'm asking to be educated. :)

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 10:45 pm 
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You are absolutely correct -- server side spam filtering can certainly block mail you want to get -- as can local filters. You would want to periodically check the server for blocked messages with server based filters.

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 Post Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 10:53 pm 
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sboots wrote:
You are absolutely correct -- server side spam filtering can certainly block mail you want to get -- as can local filters. You would want to periodically check the server for blocked messages with server based filters.

While not effective in all cases would not this possibly indicate that local rules might be best for the first layer of defense?

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 11:04 am 
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If your email program provides spam filtering based on learning logic that updates regularly, it can be a good solution in that you would not need to check for missing messages on a different system.

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:43 pm 
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eM Client does have a spam filter that shows under the rules list but it is not editable in any apparent way.

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:46 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
eM Client does have a spam filter that shows under the rules list but it is not editable in any apparent way.

Jay, I'm not sure what you mean by editable, but eM Client does have a Rules Wizard that appears to me to give the user much flexible in defining new rules. To read about the Wizard go here: Menu>Help>Contents>Index>Rules>New

To start the Wizard, go here: Menu>Tools>Rules>New Rule

I'm not yet familiar with the logic of establishing rules, so I need to study up on it (reminds me of the old days when I was trying to create macros for Lotus 123). But I'm sure you understand all this logic. :cboy1:

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 6:03 pm 
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You cannot edit the spam filter rule under the rules listing.

You will get the rules easy enough. Just read the possible templates in the top half of the wizard and then fill in the bottom. To fill in the bottom just click on the blue links and an entry field will open up.

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:06 pm 
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Jay, I wasn't sure what you meant by 'editable'. But I do see that the 'spam filter rule' can't be edited...I assume because we didn't compose it using the Rules Wizard.

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:21 pm 
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Correct. If you try to edit it pops up a message that a rule not composed with the wizard cannot be modified or something like that.

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 10:27 am 
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Jay, this is a quote from eM Client: "We believe that Spam should be filtered directly on the server so eM Client includes only one default Spam rule that moves messages marked by SpamAssassin as spam to the Junk folder."

Nothing has yet gone to my Junk folder on any of my accounts, yet I am getting plenty of spam. Does this mean SpamAssassin is not working properly? Do you know if it can be modified to become more aggressive? Is it working on your computer like it should? Thanks........

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 12:02 pm 
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Based on that statement by eM Client, the rule simply moves messages that were marked as spam by the server side spam filtering program. There's nothing to adjust in the client -- it supports what I noted about having spam filtering on the server. Spam Assassin is a spam filtering program for Linux that runs as a service on a Linux mail server -- https://spamassassin.apache.org/ -- it's not something you have access to.

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 1:42 pm 
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Thanks, Steve...that clarifies why I can't do anything with the program. I remember many years ago my mail client used spamassassin and it put the words SPAM in the (I think) subject line. Then I used a rule that moved any email with SPAM in the subject line directly to my spam folder. That might have been back in the days of outlook express, or maybe even before that.

My problem now is that my ISP is a little mom & pop operation that only offers DSL service; furthermore, they don't really have a help desk per se, so no one to ask. I do know that they use Zimbra to power their webmail. But when I go to Zimbra to see my email there, I can't find anything about the spam filter that Zimbra uses.

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