Has the Spam Problem Been Solved?

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
Bill Gates, you big dreamer, you. :D It was predicted by Gates back in 2004 that the spam problem would no longer be an issue within two years. Some people are seeing a marked drop in email spam in their inboxes, while others (like myself) find it on the increase. The spam is still out there, but whether or not you receive it will depend on who your email client is and how well it handles spam.

Gmail had a pretty good reputation for dealing with spam. But it was far from perfect.
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The spam is there... not just email spam. For those of us that admin / manage a number of forums it's a never ending battle of patches, plug-ins, and account maintenance. Email it's there - my spam filters catch a ton of crap, which is rather nice.
 
With Gmail I receive no spam at all (in the inbox, in the spam box I receive about 5 a year). The key is using a dummy address for unimportant website inscriptions. I'm pretty sure everybody here does the same.

Does the stupid emails from relatives (''msn will be closed unless...'', ''this girl is sufferring...'', and the classic ''cute cat pictures'') count has spam? Those are the emails that annoys me the more.
 
I receive 0 spam in my inbox with gmail except for messages/letters i signed up for.
 
I agree with somecallmetim its a new era of spam: comments/forums/blogs etc spam
 
Ever since I've moved all my domains over to Google Apps/Gmail I really have no issues with spam, it is still there but the spam filters make dealing with it a thing of the past. There will never be a 'cure' for spam until the method of sending/receiving email has some level of authentication enforced, but that's probably a pipe dream in the foreseeable future.

My main issue with email these days is forwards from people I know, and mailing lists from companies I deal with that seem to think email marketing will be more successful the more frequently they send you something.
 
jroe52 said:
I receive 0 spam in my inbox with gmail except for messages/letters i signed up for.
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Same here. Except I'm on Hotmail and Gmail. Both get zero spam.

It seems Gmail and Hotmail were able to fix the blizzard spoofing bug scammers were using and I stopped getting those "YOR ACOUNT IZ HAKKED!"
 
I had a ymail account for a couple of years, and it finally started getting spam in (not sure how exactly as I never gave it out on the web but oh well) and I used that as an excuse to use gmail. Now when I sign up for things such as retailers that I use a lot (Amazon) I'll use [email protected], so at least if I get spammed again I'll know who set me up and can block it with filters.

Is that the best solution, or is there something better?
 
This last week has been trash central in my 3 emails I use frequently. I wish there was a way to stop it all.....
 
I get very little spam in my gmail box, will get a few every once in a while... That is not counting the stupid forwarded jokes from family (can that be considered spam).
 
I use Gmail, and while I don't see spam, it's there. Huge truck loads of it. Been a couple of months since I last cleaned it out, but I have 630 spam.

The only reason we don't see the spam is because the email filters are doing a good job.
 
Gmail is pretty good, I use it via Google Apps for email on my domain.

However, Cloudmark (where I work) has an awesome free end-user solution - you install a small desktop client on your PC, and all your IMAP email goes through it. No more spam. :)
 
I almost never get spam on my gmail inbox. That spam folder is packed to the top though, sometimes I clear it just because I get sick of seeing the number of messages.
 
I get my WoW Account is under investigation emails daily. Thing is I havent played in over 6 months lol. I also get D3 beta invites in my spam folder. Overall 2-3 a day.
 
The occurrence of a spam message in my inboxes is about 1 in 6mo or less.
I have gmail for my personal mail and we Barracuda filters at work.

I would say from the end user point of view it is basically solved and on the decline.

Now as others pointed out, forum spam is an increasing problem for forum admins and users.
 
jroe52 said:
I receive 0 spam in my inbox with gmail except for messages/letters i signed up for.
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I had to disable gmail's spam filtering because it was getting way too many false positives. There are probably idiots out there marking mail they signed up for as spam.

My own mail classification system does way better.
 
Zoomer said:
I had to disable gmail's spam filtering because it was getting way too many false positives. There are probably idiots out there marking mail they signed up for as spam.

My own mail classification system does way better.
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Well, the problem with people clicking the spam button for things they signed up for is that it is either a pain in the ass or impossible to unsubscribe from some things. I have gone through weeks of multiple unsubscribe attempts for various "legitimate" companies only to still receive the mails. The spam button takes care of them.
 
precariousgray said:
Well, the problem with people clicking the spam button for things they signed up for is that it is either a pain in the ass or impossible to unsubscribe from some things. I have gone through weeks of multiple unsubscribe attempts for various "legitimate" companies only to still receive the mails. The spam button takes care of them.
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Yes! And what is with the "your address has been removed from our system -- please wait approx 10 days to take effect..."? How does it take 10 days to stop sending me a daily newsletter? This is an electronic medium, it's a simple matter of replacing a "1" with a "0." They act like these things are loaded on trucks by teamsters or something; can't stop them so we have to wait for a week or two for all the deliveries to finish before they decide to honor my REMOVE request.

(And that is only for the legit companies. I never ask to be removed from actual spam as that is just a sucker's trap.)
 
Gmail is great, their spam control is unbeatable. But as an email admin for 200 plus employees, it boils down to how much crap they sign up for. People dont realize if you supply your email for a free offer, or any promotion, or anything, they will spam you like crazy. And GOD don't click that unsubscribe address in the spam emails you get! It tells them you address is active.
 
WarriorX said:
I get my WoW Account is under investigation emails daily. Thing is I havent played in over 6 months lol. I also get D3 beta invites in my spam folder. Overall 2-3 a day.
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Block them, most of the time they aren't using a spoofed email address and you can control most of them. Sometimes they use a spoofed email (contains an actual blizzard email, still continues through blockers) those will eventually go away as mine just recently did.

I probably have 30 fake blizzard emails on block. Nothing else haha.
 
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