Why is Verizon limiting Spam Filter to only 50 entrees?

[mystiky]

I've been with Verizon (first with DSL and now FIOS) for over 15 years.   Lately, the SPAM has gotten really out of hand and I have realized that the most powerful way to deal with it is to set-up the SETTINGS / E-MAIL OPTIONS / FILTERS inside the Verizon's Webmail website for each .NET account I have and use.

Believe me, it actully works but of course, the spammers keep changing the spelling of keywords to bypass the filter.  I have had no problem to go in an add "new" keywords about once a week but just now, I got the shock of my life.

It seems that Verizon is limiting each email address to just 50 filters.   WHY??!?!?!?

It's not as it you can go logic entry for each keyword (meaning you can specify 10 words in each entry and us AND/OR logic).  You need to use a phrase or just a single word per EACH filter entry.

How and whom do you suggest I contact to complain about this.  I am considering writing the executive office if I have to.

This is just so wrong.   When I go in and add filter keywords, I am not taking up Verizon heck of a lot of Verizon's storage, nor am I taking up their time.

Can someone please tell me if I am missing anything and how can we all get involved in having them moving up the limitation from 50 to at least 200, if not 500!!!!

- A shocked Verizon user 

[NatSov]

A better question would be, how is it, they can't stop all this spam coming in, but if you try to respond to any of it, in a facitious way,they block your outgoing message, every time.  I prefer to have them stopped from coming in, all together, then having attempts to reply stopped, and said it cannot send because the email you are responding to, appears to be spam.  If they know it is spam,why do they let it through.  Only one possible answer, Green Backs.

[mystiky]

We all know that it is almost impossible to stop all spam.  I agree that Verizon does a very poor job but I am willing to help myself.  Increasing the limitation of only 50 keyword filters (to 250 or even 500) could be done much more quickly by  Verizon than worrying about millions and millions of daily spam messages that hit their users.

Verizon, what have YOU say?

[Hobnob123]

Totally agree that this 50 entree limit is ludicrous.  I get the same spam emails every single day.  I could eliminate them easily, with little effort, if I could only enter a few more block filters. As it is now, if I edit the existing 50 to cater to today's spam, the other spam will resume arriving.  Frustrating!

Of course Verizon could easily do much better at blocking them in the 1st place, and it would be nice if sending spam to the spam folder actually helped the system "learn" the spam traits in order to help block it.  And sending headers to spamdetector.notcaught@verizon.net is a complete waste of time - they do nothing with this.  So Verizon, if you refuse to help out with the spam, why do you have to limit my ability to combat it on my own?

[NtrLpr7]

I have been reading these discussions periodically for the past few months and subscribed today just to add my voice to the chorus of customers who find Verizon's silence and inaction on this issue inexcusable.  Verizon email accounts are not free and every Verizon customer knows that we pay through the nose for Verizon FIOS service including the email.  I view it as an insult to consantly see recommendations about "turning the spam filter on", "marking not caught messages as SPAM" and "forwarding not caught messages to Verizon" when none of these actions changes anything as anyone who has done these for months can attest.

I too have been a Verizon customer for over a decade and only early this year became subjected to the massive onslaught of OBVIOUS spam.  I understand and accept that the spammers change servers everyday and send out the same spam over and over.  However, key word filtering does work so if key word filtering works at the end user level, why can't verizon do it at the server/source level?  Needless to say I too was livid when I discovered that Verizon limited the number of filter rules one can make.  So on the one hand they do minimal filtering (the only SPAM I see get caught is spam that has my username in the subject line and offers of male enhancement remidies), but limit the amount of filtering you can do.  Unfortunately for us customers, as the old saying goes, Membership (in the monopoly club) has its privileges.

[gerryl1]

Amen.  Verizon's spam control is a joke.  90% of my e-mails are spam.  I faithfully send every one to the spamdetector.notcaught address, only to get the exact same messages over and over again.

The spam filters are useless if you try to filter on the sender - spammers spoof their address and keep changing it.  Filtering on a common term in the subject, like Medicare or Viagra, sometimes (but not always) works, but with a limit of only 50 filters, most get through.

Hey Verizon - shape up.

[mystiky]

Why haven't any of the Verizon MODERATORS replied to my inquiry.  It's been 10 days since my original posting.

I am sure that there are many others out there that could chime in with the same complaint that I and a few others here have qureed about (limiting the FILTER to 50 keywords)

Thank you!

[ElizabethS]

This is a peer to peer support forum. The moderators work only with the forum itself and are unable to supply answers to technical, service or account issues.

[mystiky]

Then WHO or WHERE do we contact about these TECHNICAL issues?  And please don't tell me to call the support phone number and they are hopeless.

[ElizabethS]

I'm sorry, but that is the only way to reach Verizon, either through the 1-800-verizon phone number or one of the links on the contact us page.

[daisy01]

I also have been getting between 20 to 40 spam emails per day on my Verizon.net email account during the last several months, So far I've added 26 key word and symbol filters to catch spam emails and keep them from getting into my inbox. To my suprise almost all the spam emails have no "To" address listed in the "Show Details" link. And in the body of the "View Source" tab my email address is not listed anywhere. How can I be receiving emails that are not even addressed to me???? Verizon could possibly block emails that have no "To" field filled in very easily. Why don't they just do it instead of placing the burden on their customers. I will have to call the 1-800-number this week and ask one of their support people this very question. I don't want to believe that Verizon allows spammers through their system because of possibile financial gain via pay-per-click sales via responding to spam offers. On a similar note, I don't recieve any snail-mail in my home mail box unless it has my address on it. 

[tns2]

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@daisy01 wrote:

,,,. How can I be receiving emails that are not even addressed to me???? Verizon could possibly block emails that have no "To" field filled in very easily. ...

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If you ever looked at how addressing is handled for the SMTP protocol you would discover its all completely outside of anything you view.  All the addressing stuff is done first  (MAIL and RCPT commands) and then a copy of the mail(DATA command).  Of course good mail software than gives you pretty TO and CC lines although BCC are not shown even with them.

[gerryl1]

Tried that - called what Verizon facetiosly calls "Customer Service" to ask why sending spams to the spam not detected address is useless, and why the spam filters do not work.  Got some kid in India who did not have a clue about what I was talking about.  His suggestion - change your password!

Does anyone have any recommendations for other e-mail providers who do a better job of protecting us from spam?  I would be willing to give up the FIOS speed for better e-mail service.  Perhaps if enough of us do, Verizon just might wake up.

[somegirl]

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@gerryl wrote:

Tried that - called what Verizon facetiosly calls "Customer Service" to ask why sending spams to the spam not detected address is useless, and why the spam filters do not work.  Got some kid in India who did not have a clue about what I was talking about.  His suggestion - change your password!

Does anyone have any recommendations for other e-mail providers who do a better job of protecting us from spam?  I would be willing to give up the FIOS speed for better e-mail service.  Perhaps if enough of us do, Verizon just might wake up.

---

Gmail. No ISP change required.

[tns2]

Actually a lot of the ISP do worse and some have absolutely no spam filter.  Its left for the individual to handle their spam.

Some of the EMAIL sites not associated with ISP's, e.g. Gmail, are considered to  have the better anti-spam checking.

[daisy01]

Update on previous post. I called Verizon's 1-800-837-4966 support number and discussed the spam issue with them. No help from them in resolving their inability to block spam. I was told to just keep adding filters so they wouldn't get into my inbox and that the number of spam emails might be reduced over time. Sorry, problem not solved. I filed a complaint against Verizon with the Federal Trade Commission about their spam policy and I'm also forwarding all the un-caught spam to them with a note stating Verizon' s inability to solve this issue on their own. I advise everyone reading this to do the same. Maybe this is the only way Verizon will wake up and resolve this problem. I also see that today someone posted a complaint on another issue in the forums that Verizon has blocked all access to their email system from over seas. Maybe this is a start to them adderssing this issue.

[tns2]

Note I always forward spam to the FTC spam address

spam@uce.gov

But don't expect the FTC to be interested in your compaint against Verizon.  Verizon need not even have to supply a anti-spam filter let alone one that works better.  Also the spam filter is not a Verizon product but a seperate vendor that Verizon contracts out to.  At one time it worked fairly well, but the spammers are getting better and better at doing their thing.

[mystiky]

During the last 3 days, I am getting 90% spam.  For what-ever reason.  Probably it will change back to 40-50 each day as it has been the norm the last few months.

Going back to my original topic of limiting the keywords to 50.

Does anyone have any corporate contacts to get in touch directly with regard of increasing the FILTER limit to 500+ entrees?

I have tried pleading with Level 2/3 Verizon tech support and they are just powerless.

There is just NO EXCUSE to limit us to how many keywords we want to enter.  Some of you said that Verizon offers it (and the general spam filter) out of courtesy.  Really?  Okay, so it's like creating a video game and allowing someone to have only 2 profiles. How difficult is it to increase the limit to 20 profiles?  The fact is that programmers at Verizon ALREADY implemented the option to have keyword filters.  Now, all that is just left is to increase the buffer/storage for more keywords to be held in the bank.  We are not asking for a completely new feature to be implemented.

Or is someone is going to reply & say here that:

1)  That will require more storage space for Verizon, therefore costing them money  <<<-- Really???

2)  That will slow down incoming email   <<<---- I don't mind waiting an extra milisecond or two for that, do you??

I would hate to know that we are all trying in vain to be able to help ourselves to monitor and control incoming spam into our OWN account, for which we PAY for.

Please give us some emails to write directly to.

Thank you all again!

[somegirl]

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@mystiky wrote:

...

Going back to my original topic of limiting the keywords to 50.

Does anyone have any corporate contacts to get in touch directly with regard of increasing the FILTER limit to 500+ entrees?

I have tried pleading with Level 2/3 Verizon tech support and they are just powerless.

...

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I hope you get your contact information, but I'm going to go ahead and tell you it won't change anything. Verizon is not going to change the limit, just like they refuse to increase the number of Blocked Senders list entries, or offer IMAP.

[daisy01]

According to the Federal Government’s Securities & Exchange Commission web site, www.sec.gov Verizon’s corporate address is listed as:

Verizon Corporate Office Headquarters

140 West Street

New York City, NY 10007

No email address is listed, of course not, maybe they would consider customer complaint emails as spam.

Verizon’s CEO is listed as Lowell McAdam

{please keep it relevant}