Decrease in Overall Amount of Spam Being Filtered

Last summer, SpamSieve reported (in Statistics > Filtered Mail > Spam Messages Per Day) that >130 spams/day were being received. This rate was steady for several months, varying between 120 and 140.

In the fall, the number began dropping. Now, the spams-per-day number is 64, a considerable reduction. I’m using the same ISP and the same email address.

I’m not complaining, SpamSieve does an excellent job. But I’m curious if others are seeing the same.

There’s no way to tell from looking at your Mac, but typically I’ve seen this caused by more aggressive filtering at the ISP level, where they delete some messages outright instead of putting them in the Spam mailbox. Depending on your ISP, there may or may not be a way to control this.

Thanks, Michael. I’m aware of this as a possibility, and I have the ISP’s spam filtering disabled. While troubleshooting an IMAP issue with them in the fall, I asked specifically about their filtering, and they affirmed that if I have it turned off (I did and do), then there’s no filtering going on in their shop.

It can remain a mystery. Delightful, and so far unexplained.