If the sender's address is the same each time you can create a filter. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Filters_(Thunderbird)

christ1 said

If the sender's address is the same each time you can create a filter. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Filters_(Thunderbird)

Thanks for that. I've done that already. I really want to know why the spam filtering isn't working. If I keep marking posts from a sender as "junk" why are the all not so marked?

Because it's not as simple as matching the sender. It scores just about everything in the message, treating words as tokens, and uses the correlation between your "junk"/"not junk" classification and the frequencies of the tokens found in the messages to generate a junk score. A recurrent "From:" address in itself isn't necessarily going to generate a positive junk score. But in my experience it's rare for a spammer to keep using the same "From:" address.

Help it along by marking good messages as Not Junk.

A lot of stuff reported as spam or junk seems to be just things that people have become bored of, and should properly be unsubscribed, not treated as spam. They are after all not exactly "unsolicited" and it irks me to find other people's spam filters categorising my commercial email as spam. Spam should be thought of as Unsolicited Commercial Email.

Zenos. I understand what you say and realise that there is more to identification of junk than I previously thought. I will just have to rely on the filter I set up. It would be very much simpler if Tbird had a "blacklist" option.

As regards the issue of unsubscribing. I definitely did NOT subscribe to this email list. The fact that there is an unsubscribe link is just so much camouflage to kid me on it is a real email.

mefaecartland said

Zenos. I understand what you say and realise that there is more to identification of junk than I previously thought. I will just have to rely on the filter I set up. It would be very much simpler if Tbird had a "blacklist" option. As regards the issue of unsubscribing. I definitely did NOT subscribe to this email list. The fact that there is an unsubscribe link is just so much camouflage to kid me on it is a real email.

And also a great way to find out its a live email-account that they can sell

I think you misunderstand.

I have subscribed to various newsletters. Shops, restaurants; that sort of thing. Often it's tied to a promotion or offer. Or because you've been asked to open an account with an on-line supplier.

Presumably anyone who has also received these newsletters has also at some point signed up for them. So why do the newsletters end up in the spam folders of gmail and other providers? Presumably this is, in part, because people report the newsletters as spam, rather than going back to the sender and asking him to stop sending them.

Spam == Unsolicited Commercial Email

Anything that has been voluntarily signed up for is, by definition, not "unsolicited", and so should not be classified as "spam".

Se server setup option junk mail If you don't have junk mail- control activated and you don't trust "spam assassin" then you have to decide what's junk yourself. OR you teach your TB what is and what's not spam. And still mistrust "Spam assassin"

There is some reluctance to introduce a blacklist option as it would in all honesty become a point of failure for the program. Apparently most people think like you that SPAM comes from the same address. and can be controlled through a blacklist or block list. Think how much time would be spend cycling through a list of 5 or 10 Thousand email addresses every time a mail arrived to see if it was on the list.

Mail that consistently comes from the same email address month in and month out is almost certainly not spam. Although it may be unwanted mail. Spammers do not use the same email address because people put their addresses on a blacklist and even heuristic filters like Thunderbird's catch on in about a week.

Many people appear (from where I am sitting) to treat all unwanted mail as spam, including mail from lists they have subscribed to, and from web sites that receiving mail is a requirement of continued membership. The issue for those in the USA is inadequate controls by their government on mail. Everyone is using software to try and fix an issue that is infact a legislative one.

Here in Australia where marketing email list mail must be subscribed to we get very very little spam. Prior to the legislation we had similar problems to the USA with a burgeoning a mail box of utter rubbish.

If legislation in your country is deficient, please take the time to make legislators aware that your not happy. Write to them, or post on their facebook wall and ask them what they personally are doing on the subject and what their policy is. Get your friends involved.

Zenos - I understand the definition of Spam. You do not need to repeat it. The emails I received WERE unsolicited. I DID NOT voluntarily sign up for them.

Gnospen - junk mail control is activated (w/o SpamAssassin) and today, an email from the spammer was, successfully identified by tbird as junk.

Matt - I appreciate your point re blacklists. Probably not worth the time cost to set one up. However, I suspect that the company who is emailing me has my email address because either someone has spoofed it or it has been acquired from a third party.

Today, I visited their website and it does seem legitimate, although not something I would ever consider wanting, so I've bitten the bullet and clicked the "unsubscribe" link. Will post in a few days to say what this results in.

I try not to subscribe to follow up emails and newsletters when using websites - only if it is an essential part of the registration process (should not be). Afterwards, I try to unsubscribe as soon as possible. Also, when using a website for the first time, I use an email address which I ONLY use for the purposes of registration. If I get spam on my other addresses, then it IS spam.

Thanks for all your input, folks.

One reason messages were not recognized as spam could be that you set up a filter. Filters are run before the junk mail controls. There is no way to change that order. So possibly junk mail controls never saw the message when the filter did match before.

Once your problem has been resolved, can you mark the thread as 'Solved' please? Thank you.

mefaecartland said

I try not to subscribe to follow up emails and newsletters when using websites - only if it is an essential part of the registration process (should not be).

I hear you. But like the ask toolbar in the flash updater we all get caught occasionally.

Re Christies advice, you can modify the filter timing to make it after classification. I also suggest one of the functions needed in the filter is to mark it as junk. (that educates the junk filter)

TheJunQuilla add-on offers a lot in spam management. The authors post on the add-on is here http://mesquilla.com/extensions/junquilla/