View Full Version : Obsene Subject Lines
Hologram
06-06-2004, 09:44
The number of spam emails with obsene words in the subject line is increasing. Today I got one called "Damn just saw my wife getiing ******". I've replaced the rude word but use your imagination.
Does NTL do any filtering of such emails? It isn't difficult to write a bit of code to scan the subject line and delete the email if appropriate.
I realise that this wont stop the general spam problem but it would stop my kids seeing the subject line if they get to the pc before me.
NTL sell themselves as being family friendly, i.e. NTL HOME so surely they have some responsibility here.
badnbusy
06-06-2004, 09:54
As long as they dont FORCE all email to go through a spam filter, then thats fine.
Spam filtering is never 100% accurate, and some valid emails would be lost. So as long as they give the customer the choice to have their email go thru it or not, i agree there should be the option. (Some of us prefer our own spam filters - customised to suit ourselves :))
But then again, with the email servers already falling over almost every day, i dont think their servers would be able to handle another task!
I am receiving 20+ e-mails a day with virus attatchments to e-mail accounts such as allusers@ntlworld.com etc surely something can be done by NTL - my norton antivirus is working overtime trying to cope!!
I get the impression that this is like blaming the Highways department of your local council if someone drives a dangerous old banger around the streets...
Alanmelon
06-06-2004, 11:21
What if we know someone with a bit of keyboard Tourette's? If ntl were to block swearwords, none of their mail would ever get through.
Surely the users of the PC have to take some responsibility here as well????
There are lots and lots of tools available to do all the things mentioned in this thread......
A quick google search will bring them up :)
I think NTL is worst than other ISP's tho as my Virgin net receives hardly any spam and virtually no viruses??
ian@huth
06-06-2004, 12:07
I think NTL is worst than other ISP's tho as my Virgin net receives hardly any spam and virtually no viruses??
Aren't virgin net accounts run on NTL networks? :confused:
Aren't virgin net accounts run on NTL networks? :confused:
I think so. I think the reason Ntl seem to get more than other ISP's is down to it's size and it's seen as a juicy target for spammers.
I've used other large ISP's such as BTOpenworld in the past and have always found the larger, better known companies seem to get hit with more spam than the smaller, more obscure ISP's.
Aren't virgin net accounts run on NTL networks? :confused:
Yes, Virgin uses NTL's network as a virtual ISP - but they run their own mail servers which do have anti-spam software on them. I get far less via my Virgin account than by my NTL account.
Yes, Virgin uses NTL's network as a virtual ISP - but they run their own mail servers which do have anti-spam software on them. I get far less via my Virgin account than by my NTL account.
How do you set up a Virgin account Pem?
As long as they dont FORCE all email to go through a spam filter, then thats fine.
Spam filtering is never 100% accurate, and some valid emails would be lost. So as long as they give the customer the choice to have their email go thru it or not, i agree there should be the option. (Some of us prefer our own spam filters - customised to suit ourselves :))
But then again, with the email servers already falling over almost every day, i dont think their servers would be able to handle another task!
What if they just label it somehow (our mail servers at work just add {Spam?} to the subject line)? If you want it deleted, it is easy to add a rule to most email programs that will filter it.
How do you set up a Virgin account Pem?
Well I've had mine about eight years but I assume you still just signup for the PAYG service (http://www.virgin.net/customers/internetaccess/payg.html).
Flubflow
06-06-2004, 14:00
The spam filtering on my email with i-websolutions hosting account is superb. It detects spam extremely well and adds "{spam?}" to the subject line so even in crappy email clients like outlook express you can filter those out (delete from server) if you wish.
I have email accounts with other ISPs that use similar spam filtering but they only put extra headers in spam emails rather than in the subject line which means you can't filter it out with Outlook Express but you probably could with other email clients.
NTL on the otherhand do sweet FA to reduce the spam problem. It is particularly distressing when the spam is complete filth and especially when it winds up in the email account of a minor. The technology is there to massively reduce the problem and it is realtively cheap to do it so why aren't NTL using it?
...Does NTL do any filtering of such emails? It isn't difficult to write a bit of code to scan the subject line and delete the email if appropriate...If you use Outlook Express you could do that yourself by using 'message rules'.
You put in the words you want filtered & then chose what to do with the email (delete from server, highlight it in colour, move to specific folder etc.).
Flubflow
06-06-2004, 14:57
If you use Outlook Express you could do that yourself by using 'message rules'.
You put in the words you want filtered & then chose what to do with the email (delete from server, highlight it in colour, move to specific folder etc.).
That's the problem. Unless you can regularly import an updated library of filthy words (and all their obfuscated or "sound-a-like" variants) then you are waging a pointless battle. With OE you can't import such a thing and each filtered item has to be input manually. These message rules in OE were never intended to deal with the vast devious spam we get and you can never predict the lengths the spammers will go to in order to get a filthy word across in the subject line or message. I have built up a huge word filter in OE over the last few years and yet I still get the damn spam. I get less than if I had no filters but I still get them.
It's difficult enough explaining to non-technical people how to use OE in the most basic way nevermind things like message rules or 3rd party apps like Mail Washer etc.
Hologram
06-06-2004, 18:15
Flubflow, That sums up the reason why NTL should do something very well. Thanks. I'm all for personal choice so I don't see a problem with switching the filter on or off.
Theodoric
06-06-2004, 18:51
I am receiving 20+ e-mails a day with virus attatchments to e-mail accounts such as allusers@ntlworld.com etc surely something can be done by NTL - my norton antivirus is working overtime trying to cope!!
I can understand why some people might object to enforced Spam filtering by ntl - the impossibility of definitively defining spam and therefore the risk of some legitimate mail being lost. However, I am totally at a loss as to why ntl cannot do virus checking of messages; surely no-one, but no-one, expects to receive legitimate messages with hidden viruses in them; if ever there was a case of totally black and totally white, this must be it. When it reached this stage for me (virus infested spam), I decided that enough was enough and changed my user name; a serious hassle, but livable with in my case.
EDIT And yes, I realise that you need to do something yourself (actulayy, in the case of ntl, you have no choice about this). The virsuses were detected by my Norton AV, but it all left me feeling very uneasy wondering when Norton would fail. I'd have felt much happier without constant Norton AV warnings.
I think NTL is worst than other ISP's tho as my Virgin net receives hardly any spam and virtually no viruses??Ntl is no better or worse in this respect,
My Zen dial up account receives 75% more spam than my Ntl BB account, however this is no doubt due to the fact that it has had the same e-mail address for over 8 years, I just use mailwasher on the Zen account.
darkone338
13-06-2004, 21:57
http://www.spampal.org.uk will let you setup your OWN filtering rules and insert whatever keyword you want into the subject line so as you can delete/filter to a different folder as you should so wish...
As someone posted before, dont let NTL filter your email, they cant deliver normal email properly, never mind having to correctly identify spam.
Virgin.net have recently aquired spam and virus filters (http://www.virgin.net/customers/my_mail/changes.html)
NTL will be releasing theirs soon.
(See google's cache of the Nasdaq press release) (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:bjClJ_yYDOYJ:www.openwave.com/us/news_room/press_releases/2004/20040115_opwv_ntl_0115.htm+nasdaq+ntl+openwave&hl=en)
NTL are currently quoting Mid-End July for release, but don't take that as gospel, nothing firm yet.
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