We have added an Anti-Spam solution to our E-Mail server. Here is how the first salvo against spammers will work.  

We are pleased to announce that we have added Anti-Spam software to your oldwiz.net E-Mail service. This is the same Anti-Spam software used by Stanford University, and the University of Washington. I want to thank them for the information on this software and for the excellent instructions for setting up the various E-Mail Clients.

After we have tested and tuned the system we will begin to "Block and Quarantine" most spam. At that point, you will receive a "Digest Message" from the server listing any mail we have Quarantined for you. If there are some messages you wish to receive that we are holding in Quarentine, simply reply to the "Digest Message" and remove the messages listed you don't want to get.

Pretty nifty stuff!

For the next few weeks we will be using the method outlined here, to tune the software.

• All your email will still be delivered to you, regardless of its spam classification. The anti-spam system does not delete spam; it just identifies it.  

 
• Email that might be spam will have a [SPAM:# #] tag added to its Subject line. For example:

Before
Subject: Get What You Want
From:  eDiets Motivation <motivation@EDIETS.COM>


After
Subject: [SPAM:####] Get What You Want
From:  eDiets Motivation <motivation@EDIETS.COM>


• The number of "#" signs (pound or number signs) after the word "Spam:" indicates how sure the system is that your email qualifies as spam. To get one "#", the system must be 55% certain that it has found spam. Each "#" after that is another 5%-10% of certainty.

• All email, regardless of whether it's spam or not, will carry a line of "X-Perlmx-Spam" evaluation in the header. This tells you what spam patterns were discovered by the system when evaluating your email. Here is an example:
  
  Subject: [SPAM:####] Get What You Want
  From:  eDiets Motivation <motivation@EDIETS.COM>
  X-Perlmx-Spam: Gauge=XXXXXXXXIIIIIII, Probability=87%, Report="BIG_FONT, CLICK_ BELOW, CLICK_HERE_LINK, COPYRIGHT_CLAIMED, CTYPE_JUST_HTML, EXCUSE_6, MSG_ID_ADDED_BY_MTA_2, PORN_3, RCVD_IN_OSIRUSOFT_COM, REMOVE_PAGE, SUPER LONG_LINE"

The "Probability" number represents how certain the system is that your email constitutes spam.  

Is the system foolproof? 

No. Email is by nature so varied that the anti-spam system will occasionally make mistakes. You can help reduce the number of times this happens by forwarding the mistakes to us. The examples you send will be used to fine tune the anti-spam system so it doesn't repeat its error. Here's how:

• False positives. The system will occasionally count something as spam that is not spam. Forward a copy of this email, AS AN ATTACHMENT, to notspam@oldwiz.net.
  
  
• False negatives. Some spam will occasionally slip through the system unmarked. Forward a copy of this email, AS AN ATTACHMENT, to isspam@oldwiz.net.

note. Click Message then Forward as Attachment in most E-mail Software.

How do I set my mail program to filter spam?