Thunderbird's Junk Filter

[MalcolmWalker]

In the past I have used Outlook Express, Outlook and even Windows Mail but Thunderbird is my email client of choice and has been for probably at least the last five years. I was prompted by Peter Kinross's thread about the lack of an efficient spam filter to ask for enlightenment about an apparent failure of Thunderbird's junk filter.

Spam/Junk emails from certain sources, no matter how many times marked as junk, still appear in the Inbox. For example, one of these I repeatedly receive informs me that I am selling my Diablo III account. I don't know what a Diablo III account is, let alone have one! These emails arrive almost daily, sometimes two together. I mark them all as junk but Thunderbird fails to `learn' despite the `training'. I have not lost Patience, I have Persisted and I am about to resort to Prayer in marking these messages as Junk! There are a very few other emails with similar behaviour; Charming Events comes to mind.

I have to wonder if some of these persistent offenders have a programmed protection from spam/junk filters to enable them to pass through both the ISP's and email client's filters?

Can anyone in the know comment please?

[DaveA]

The problem with most all of the email programs and filters will not catch the ones that use a DIFFERENT email address each time.

There is NO known method to do this other than try finding a the KEYWORD(s) within the "content" that then can be sent to the junk folder. BUT, this just may start blocking valid addresses.

I have a ongoing batch of emails of about 10 different types, such as woodworking, loans, diet, health Ford cars, and etc. I get about 20 first thing in the morning and then about 5 more each time I check my mail. I am using Outlook 2010 and add them to my Junk list, which catches most of them but a few each time slept through.

[StuartR]

...There is NO know method to do this other than try finding a the KEYWORD(s) within the "content" that then can be sent to the junk folder. BUT, this just may start blocking valid addresses...

There are many methods other than this. For example:

• Bayesian Filters
• Cloud based detection - where people report SPAM emails to a centralized database which then analyzes your emails to find the matching content

[jonwallace]

I've been using POPFile to filter my emails for years, originally as a means to stick emails in the right mailbox for the 5 people that used to use my PC, but now almost solely as a spam filter. It is a bit fiddly to set up and has to be trained, but these days I almost never have to reclassify anything.