"jane" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 09:23:58 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:

~
~"jane" wrote in message
...
~ On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 18:05:57 +0000, Chris Hogg wrote:
~
~ ~On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 20:41:34 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
~ wrote:
~ ~
~ ~
~ ~"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
~ ...
~ ~ In article , David
~david.simp
~ ~ writes
~ ~
~ ~ But just about all the return addresses are false Jane,
~ ~
~ ~ So how do you account for the fact that we now receive no spam on
that
~ ~ mail box?
~ ~
~ ~You seem to be the only one for whom bouncing leads to reduced spam.
I
~did
~ ~not benefit from bouncing, and neither does any of my acquaintances.
~ ~
~ ~Franz
~ ~
~ ~I gave up bouncing a while ago. It didn't seem to reduce the spam and
~ ~it just contributes to the junk flying around the internet.
~ ~
~ ~
~
~ Well after a few days of using Mailwasher I've finally got all my
~ friends and contacts programmed in. Now I've set up a spreadsheet in
~ which I shall record, over 2 weeks, the number of spams received,
~ number correctly identified, and number missed (ie true and false
~ positives). Ditto good mail. I am actively bouncing spam and
~ blacklisting the apparent senders.
~
~ If it's a resounding success, I shall consider letting it delete
~ automatically and buying the real version. We shall see!
~
~ Please await progress report in 2 weeks!
~
~I look forward to the statistics.
~
~I am willing to place bets on the following:
~(1) Mailwasher is approximately 95 % effective in identifying spam
~(2) Nearly half your attempted bounces will be rejected because many
~spammers use false addresses.
~(3) The majority of the successful bounces will continue to try to send
~spam.
~

I'll only be able to give you stats on (1) though - without taking a
very careful look, I won't be able to identify who spams me twice.

Yes, that one is a bind. I stopped looking in detail as soon as I noticed 3
bouncees coming back for more.

There is a way (looking at the last email date in the blacklist.txt)
but I'm not sure if I'll do it. Might do, though I suspect 2 weeks is
too short a period for that particular question. I'm more interested
in (4) do my received-at-server spam numbers drop at all. I only got
77 overnight and it's usually over a hundred, more at weekends, so it
may already be working. We shall see.

I look forward to the results.

At present, I am hugely satisfied with the anti-spam service offered by my
ISP. He automatically tags possible spam and moves them into a separate
box. The stuff I see in my real mailbox is now only a minute percentage of
the total spam directed at me. In the early days I studied the tagged and
segregated junk to see if the ISP had misdirected any genuine mail. In more
than 2000 taggees, I have found not one erroneously tagged item. I now have
so much confidence in the system that I don't bother studying the junkbox
any more, I just do a bulk delete once or twice a week.

Franz