added Blocklist Rules don't seem to be working

I am in the Trial phase of SpamSieve but loving it so far. My current issue is that a new rule added to Blocklist doesn’t appear to be working. I am getting a lot of spam with my email address in the Subject line. Like myname@mayaddress.com, Do you like Our Offer for you Home? or Thanks, myname@mydomain.com! You Have Earned a Wendy’s Reward Card. Amount Enclosed yet I am still getting over 5/hour with my email addy in the subject line. So I added Subject Contains myname@mydomain.com to the rules but it doesn’t seem to work. I have restarted SpamSieve and restarted Entourage but they still keep coming.

Do I need all the punctuation variations? like myname@mydomain.com, and myname@mydomain.com! and myname@mydomain.com.?

What am I missing here? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

The most likely explanation is that Entourage is not set up correctly to let SpamSieve see those incoming messages. Or, it’s possible that the sender address is in your address book. Please see the Why is SpamSieve not catching my spam? page.

No. Since you used Contains, the single rule will match all of those.

The sender addresses are definitely not in the address book. I did check the Entourage setup method and found I had to make the following adjustments:

Make sure that the SpamSieve rules are at the top of the list. (they weren’t but are now)
Make sure that the SpamSieve - Move If Spam rule is above the SpamSieve - Move Messages rule. (it wasn’t but is now)
Make sure there are no other rules that move messages to the Junk E-mail folder. (I had two other rules that I setup to do this and they were at the top. I disabled them and moved them to the bottom.)

That was I figured but thought I should check.

OK. Thanks for your help. Fingers are crossed.

Well, unfortunately I am back. Just received 3 spams with identical subjects <myname@mydomain.com>Limited Number of Positions, Check Availability Now. Sept. 25th, 2013. These all came from the same address so I should be able to block this address but it seems like the Blocklist rule should have blocked these.

Any ideas?

Adding that I just got 2 more with “Work From Home” as the From (name) even though there is a rule the SpamSieve created itself From (name) Is Equal to Work From Home

Please check the log to see whether SpamSieve thought these were good. If not, you’ll need to check the Entourage setup again.

This is from the bottom of the most recent log report. There is one in here that it caught as a result of the rule. I marked that one in bold/italics. So that would say that the rule is working…every-now-and-then. Odd.

Predicted: Spam (99)
Subject: myname@mydomain.com, Remove Files that May Be Harmful to Your PC
From: PCScan@clients.thisrelief.com
Identifier: Ju5TJaGSt4k9mRG6SapmcQ==
Reason: (
    "PC Scan"
) matched rule <From (name) Is Equal to "PC Scan"> in SpamSieve blocklist
Date: 2013-09-25 22:41:33 +0000
=====================================================================
Trained: Spam (Auto)
Subject: myname@mydomain.com, Remove Files that May Be Harmful to Your PC
Identifier: Ju5TJaGSt4k9mRG6SapmcQ==
Actions: added to Spam corpus (276)
Date: 2013-09-25 22:41:33 +0000
=====================================================================
Predicted: Spam (99)
Subject: myname@mydomain.com, you qualify for Government Subsidized Solar - Lower Your Electrical Bill 70%
From: USDepartmentofEnergy@ssl.thirtyrocking.com
Identifier: BxWv2P3llwfyxfaHDPdICw==
Reason: (
    "US Department of Energy"
) matched rule <From (name) Is Equal to "US Department of Energy"> in SpamSieve blocklist
Date: 2013-09-25 22:41:48 +0000
=====================================================================
Trained: Spam (Auto)
Subject: myname@mydomain.com, you qualify for Government Subsidized Solar - Lower Your Electrical Bill 70%
Identifier: BxWv2P3llwfyxfaHDPdICw==
Actions: added to Spam corpus (277)
Date: 2013-09-25 22:41:48 +0000
=====================================================================
***Predicted: Spam (99)
Subject: myname@mydomain.com, Your Medicare Open Enrollment Period.
From: Medicare@mail.devsquareds.com
Identifier: fvIBe4PaVrp9FoLcnT8qiA==
Reason: (
    "myname@mydomain.com, Your Medicare Open Enrollment Period."
) matched rule <Subject Contains "myname@mydomain.com"> in SpamSieve blocklist
Date: 2013-09-25 22:41:48 +0000***
=====================================================================
Trained: Spam (Auto)
Subject: myname@mydomain.com, Your Medicare Open Enrollment Period.
Identifier: fvIBe4PaVrp9FoLcnT8qiA==
Actions: added to Spam corpus (278)
Date: 2013-09-25 22:41:48 +0000
=====================================================================
Predicted: Spam (99)
Subject: myname@mydomain.com, want to meet singles over 50? See photos!
From: OurTimeDating@group.earthinstant.com
Identifier: X5bOCm+iezIsVUZV8CdAeA==
Reason: (
    "OurTime Dating"
) matched rule <From (name) Is Equal to "OurTime Dating"> in SpamSieve blocklist
Date: 2013-09-25 22:41:49 +0000
=====================================================================
Trained: Spam (Auto)
Subject: myname@mydomain.com, want to meet singles over 50? See photos!
Identifier: X5bOCm+iezIsVUZV8CdAeA==
Actions: added to Spam corpus (279)
Date: 2013-09-25 22:41:49 +0000

Should I try the Entourage setup a third time? Or is this “sometimes it works” info a clue?

Are there “Predicted” log entries for the messages that weren’t caught? If not, then there’s a problem with the setup. Did you check the Mailing List Manager window? If you need further help, you could post some screenshots of the rules and rule lists.

It likely just means that the setup is partially correct.

There are some “Predicted”.

Predicted: Spam (100)
Predicted: Spam (96)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Good (1)
Predicted: Spam (96)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (96)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (96)
Predicted: Spam (96)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (96)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (96)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Good (4)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (73)
Predicted: Spam (99)
Predicted: Spam (96)
Predicted: Spam (99)
 

Three of which “Predicted” the myname@mydomain.com rule. I don’t think these were any of the ones that weren’t moved but I haven’t kept track. I got over 50 today.

Predicted: Spam (99)
Subject: Notice for myname@mydomain.com Regarding Social Security DisabilityBenefits
From: Assistance@code.featuredoutse.com
Identifier: O+yl6dIS4u5k4aUNWpLLHQ==
Reason: (
    "Notice for myname@mydomain.com Regarding Social Security DisabilityBe..."
) matched rule <Subject Contains "myname@mydomain.com"> in SpamSieve blocklist
Date: 2013-09-25 18:12:09 +0000

Predicted: Spam (99)
Subject: myname@mydomain.com, Your Medicare Open Enrollment Period.
From: Medicare@mail.devsquareds.com
Identifier: fvIBe4PaVrp9FoLcnT8qiA==
Reason: (
    "myname@mydomain.com, Your Medicare Open Enrollment Period."
) matched rule <Subject Contains "myname@mydomain.com"> in SpamSieve blocklist
Date: 2013-09-25 22:41:48 +0000

Predicted: Spam (99)
Subject: Clearance Info for myname@mydomain.com: MUST READ By 9/25/2013
From: FordandBMWCloseoutEvent@lists.registereds.com
Identifier: Jb/di4qohd+45pl1lGw1tA==
Reason: (
    "Clearance Info for myname@mydomain.com: MUST READ By 9/25/2013"
) matched rule <Subject Contains "myname@mydomain.com"> in SpamSieve blocklist
Date: 2013-09-26 03:07:42 +0000

In my Mailing List Manager I see 3 rules. All 3 are checked and the Advanced tab of all 3 have “Do not apply rules to list messages”. These rules are dated so I just deleted them entirely to se if that might help.

Attached is an image of all the rules and Hits in my Blocklist.

I hope something here helps. Thank you for your attention.

SpamSieveBlocklistRules.jpg

That’s really the key question. When you find a message that wasn’t moved, you can look it up in the log. Or you can look in the log for the messages that are “Trained: Spam (Manual)” and see whether those messages have a corresponding “Predicted” entry.

OK. And what about your regular rules? Are the SpamSieve ones at the top? What type of mail account(s) are you using?

Ever since I did this-

In my Mailing List Manager I see 3 rules. All 3 are checked and the Advanced tab of all 3 have “Do not apply rules to list messages”. These rules are dated so I just deleted them entirely to se if that might help.

SpamSieve has been working WONDERFULLY!

Not sure if/why that did the trick but whatever happened this is cleaning up almost all of my spam issues and it is so easy to use and train. I mostly just wanted to followup in case there any potential buyers stumble onto this thread. Note to them: Not only is SpamSieve working great but the support and attention I got here in this forum was well beyond the kind I’d expect given that I haven’t even bought it yet!

I’m a web designer and have many clients with spam frustrations and I can only help so much but will recommending this from now on. (Scratching beard…) i wonder if I can monetize this somehow…

Question that is likely out of SpamSieve’s area of responsibility but…

My Entourage is setup to play a notification sound and show a desktop preview of incoming email. It continues to do this even for the ones that SpamSieve catches and junks. I have SpamSieve setup to play “Funk.aiff” with good main arrives but Entourage plays it’s own lame default noise. I that default noise off, it plays nothing. I can also turn off the desktop notification but I need those. Just don’t want the spam ones. Help?

Another question- Do the Blocklist rules actually block? As in, those messages don’t come thru at all and/or the sender is notified that they have been “blocked”?

I think you can suppress the Entourage notifications for spam messages by adding an action at the bottom of the “SpamSieve - Move Messages” rule that says “Do Not Notify.”

No, it simply means that, if the message matches the blocklist, SpamSieve will automatically classify it as spam (with a score of 99/100).

Thanks. I’ll try that. Any harm in adding other rules like “Reply” or “Forward”?

I could reply that they have been blocked. Doubt that would really make a difference. I could forward to the US government spam-watch folks at spam@uce.gov?

I don’t recommend that.

You should only do that for messages that you’ve manually verified are spam. There’s an AppleScript to make reporting easier.