VIAGRA Inc email

I keep training spam sieve against those damn viagra emails, but they still get through. They have my email address in the from address and the from name is “VIAGRA INC” or some variation and then the subject is “89% off.”

Why do they keep getting through?

Kevin

Probably because of the way you’ve configured SpamSieve. Please see this page.

more info
I checked the logs and here is what comes up for that VIAGRA email It doesn’t seem to be registering the name in the from field, just the subject line.

================================================== ===================
Trained: Spam (Manual)
Subject: RE: SALE 89% OFF
Identifier: DhoFvATe2+mEHypIS4Txjw==
Actions: added to Spam corpus (403), removed from Good corpus (188)
Date: 2008-05-25 16:23:12 -0600
================================================== ===================
Mistake: False Negative
Subject: RE: SALE 89% OFF
Identifier: DhoFvATe2+mEHypIS4Txjw==
Classifier: Address Book
Score: 0
Date: 2008-05-25 16:23:17 -0600
================================================== ===================

That’s because you didn’t find the “Predicted: Good” entry in the log. I can see from the “Classifier” line that SpamSieve thought the message was good because the sender was in the address book. So, as I said, you need to follow the recommendations on this page. Either uncheck Use Mac OS X Address Book or use Exclude my addresses and make sure that the sender address is on your card in Address Book.

Cialis
I, too, am having a problem training spamSieve to catch these emails. Here is a paste from my log:

-----------------------------------------------------
Trained: Spam (Manual)
Subject: dioramaMoaojerry
Identifier: uz4ps85zxEP2b0e0zj54ew==
Actions: added rule <From (address) Is Equal to "ixonex@mail2arabia.com"> to SpamSieve blocklist, added to Spam corpus (1133)
Date: 2008-05-30 10:18:17 -0400
================================================== ===================
Trained: Spam (Manual)
Subject: Client Notice
Identifier: knKlnEv3YTQnQ6JSpWdn0w==
Actions: added rule <From (address) Is Equal to "services@logapp.com"> to SpamSieve blocklist, added to Spam corpus (1134)
Date: 2008-05-30 10:27:36 -0400
-------------------------------------

I am using Entourage, not Mac’s mail client. Most of the log shows a variation of the same thing. It has just started to be like this. I was not getting any a few days ago and now I am getting about 30-40 a day. I keep clicking on “train as spam”, but they keep getting through.

This just says that you trained the messages as spam. What do the “Predicted” log entries for these messages look like? Those will tell why (or if) SpamSieve thought the messages were good.

Predicted Log
Michael,
Sorry for my ignorance, but where do I find the “predicted” log?
Thanks

It’s the same log as what you were looking at. The entries are in chronological order. So if there are “Predicted” entries for these messages, they would be above the corresponding “Trained” entries. How far above depends on how long the delay was between when you received the messages and when you trained them as spam.

Ok, so when I look at the log for today, there are no predicted entries at all - just my trained entries. I’ve had mail. My most recent predicted file is from yesterday morning and it predicted correctly. I actually don’t have very many “predicted” logs going all the way back to early May.
By the way, thanks for your quick responses to these questions.

If you aren’t seeing “Predicted” entries, that means SpamSieve was not asked to filter those messages. So you need to check your rule setup (and perhaps the Mailing List Manager) in Entourage, e.g. make sure that the SpamSieve rule(s) are at the top of the list and that they’re set to act on “All messages.”

Viagra, etc
Done. SpamSieve was not at the top. In checking the rule “SpamSieve - Move if Spam” the rules are:

  1. If all criteria are met for all messages
  2. then run applescript and the button “script…” is available and next to that it says “none selected”.

This doesn’t seem correct to me. I feel ignorant about this, so your indulgence is greatly appreciated.

It shouldn’t say “none selected,” so you need to finish Step 5 starting with “Then click the Script… button.”

Viagra, etc
Thank you. That did it.