OpenEuphoria

Re: Anyone want to write an "intelligent" mail filter?

• Posted by euphoriCK <euphoric at cklester.com> Nov 05, 2003
• 651 views

Irv Mullins wrote:

>We should be able to come up with a routine which would analyze a given 
>text string and rank it according to its likelyhood of being a 'meaningful' 
>message. Then use that routine in an e-mail client to rank messages and 
>only download from the server those which appear to be 'real'. 
>
>Ideas?
>  
>

I think the best way to combat spam is to create a "white list" (as 
opposed to a "black list").

Any mail received that's not on your white list will be rejected as 
spam. The white list can simply be your address book.

Okay, so how to deal with mail from friends who get new email addresses 
or whatever? Well, the email client will send a response email to all 
non-whitelist email addresses. It will say something like this:

"Hi, I'm using Irv's Mail Control v1.0. It rocks! It has flagged you as 
an unacceptable sender. However, if you're my buddy, simply respond to 
this email and I'll let you in!"

Since most spam is auto generated, you won't get responses from most 
spammed mail. Any bouncebacks will be handled gracefully by the email 
client. Any responses you get at all will go into a special "check 
these" folder. Any of those that you mark as spam will then forever be 
known as spam. Any you mark as valid will be added to your whitelist.

This is the best way to combat spam, even though it might require a 
little effort in adding addresses to your whitelist.