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SPAM Detector tool - info

We have some updated information about the spam dectector tool, from our email product manager:

What does SPAM DETECTOR
tool do?

Your ability
to communicate with family or friends can be hindered by unsolicited email or
"spam". If you have your SPAM Detector ON, it will sift
and catch unsolicited emails sent to your email account and either present them
in the SPAM Detector folder or delete them. (Note: You can adjust your SPAM
Detector settings in the Settings/Email Settings tab within Message Center.)

Furthermore, if there are emails you deem as SPAM, you can “Mark as SPAM” by
selecting the email from your email inbox list view and select SPAM icon from
top menu bar. It will put the email in your SPAM Detector folder and send an
email to the VZ Abuse team and third party vendor to evaluate. If it is deemed
SPAM, SPAM Detector definitions/rules will be updated.

Please note that
marking email as SPAM does not add the email to the Blocked Senders list.
Furthermore, SPAMMERs rarely use the same email address more than once to send
SPAM.

Comments

Justin46

Becky,

Good info, thanks for providing. I have been using the Verizon incoming SPAM filter for two or three years now, works very well, catches probably 99% of the SPAM, of which I generally get 20-40/day. And I have added several filters of my own to catch some stuff I legitimately get but don't really care about seeing, at least on a regular basis. So overall, I am happy with the incoming filter.

However, I think a much bigger area of concern is Verizon's outgoing SPAM filter. I have seen numerous reports here and at other forums of Verizon's mail servers refusing to send emails, rejecting them as SPAM (falsely according to the posts, who knows?). I have only experienced that twice myself, and it took quite a bit of experimenting to figure out how to circumvent your filter treating my outgoing email as SPAM. In my case, I send a fair number of Word and PowerPoint files as PDF attachments. I use MS Office 2007 with the free add-on from MS to save files as PDFs. Twice after doing that the Verizon SPAM filter rejected my outgoing emails as SPAM. The first time it happened I spent a lot of time changing things, in both the email and the attached file, trying to figure out what was causing the issue. Eventually I re-created the PDF using the PDF Creator tool, and bingo, exactly the same email, exactly the same PDF content, but created with a different PDF tool, and the email went just fine. For the second time, I knew what to do, fixed it immediately, same method. Hundreds of other emails with PDF attachments created in Office have gone through just fine. I have no clue what MS sometimes puts into a PDF created from Office, but the Verizon filter sure doesn't like it.

IMHO Verizon really needs to do some work on the outgoing filters. And a detailed description from Verizon on how the outgoing SPAM filters work, including maybe a list of the common items that trip the filter, would be a great addition here (hint, hint).

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.8, Build 02.54
Keller, TX 76248

lolagoetz

Justin,

Thanks for the feedback. I'll send along to the product manager and see what I can find out for you.

BeckyS

jessm78

I'm new here and am experiencing problems with the SpamDetector in Webmail. In my case, however, legitimate emails I'm receiving are being marked as spam by Verizon. I've gone to the SpamDetector folder and marked them "not spam." However, this keeps happening and has been getting worse over the past few days. I've even added the email addressed/domain names of the emails to the "safe list", thinking maybe that will solve the problem. It has not. This is getting very frustrating. I use Webmail at work and Outlook at home for sending/receiving emails. This past weekend I failed to receive a few emails at home that I was expecting. When I logged into Webmail yesterday, there they all were in my SpamDetector folder.

Any assistance at all would be greatly appreciated.

lolagoetz

I'll see what I can find out for you.

robtoby

The outgoing emails I spoke about in a related post that are getting rejected as spam (and yes, they SHOULD NOT BE) DO NOT have any attachments, so that's a red herring.

JubiLee2

>... It will put the email in your SPAM Detector folder and send an email to the VZ Abuse team and third party vendor to evaluate.

Who is the third party vendor?

lolagoetz

I'm sorry, I don't have that information at this time.

lrrichey

I am having problems with my email. messages from my brother go in two places one in the inbox and one in the SPAM box. I have added my brothers email to Safe List and it does not fix it.

Any ideas about what to do to fix it?

Thanks

fishingeddie

Have there been any changes to the Spam Detector tool recently? I am noticing much more spam ending up in my inbox in the last week.

tns

spamers are always trying new things to get around various spam blocking
You may have visited some site or sent some email to someone. Your email address may then have been harvested and sent to other spammers

catsanctuary17

It's great that the spam detector tool sends a notification to verizon so it can assess the address and evaluate it but what about the end user??!!!! I get the same emails over and over and marking as spam does not send them to my spam folder next time they come in. Ideally if I mark something as spam it should delete it! I presume at some point I failed to uncheck a box that automatically gives permission to receive 3rd party email which is why I seem to be getting the same spam over and over. I want to get rid of it, Marking it as spam each time it comes into my main inbox is fruitless.

I tried to block the address, which again is a feature hard to navigate. Instead of having the option to do it when the email is in the mailbox, preferably when it is closed because spam should not be opened, you have to navigate hither and yon, leave the mailbox and what you're doing, find the block address feature, then the only way it gives you the option to block is by either typing the address in manually or selecting it from contacts.

Hello!!! First of all spam should not be opened.

Second, why in god's name would you add a spam address to contacts? Just reply SEND VIRUS HERE. YOU ARE IN MY CONTACTS SO I CONSIDER YOU A FRIEND.

Type each spam email address in manually or copy/paste it? What? Time consuming, still have to open the email and just another example of how verizon makes you navigate around and around to try to do something only to discover the option doesn't exist.

It's great that marking as spam helps verizon evaluate email addresses at some point in the future (who knows when because I have not seen any change), but what about the customer's needs at this immediate time?

@BeckyS_VZ wrote:
We have some updated information about the spam dectector tool, from our email product manager:
What does SPAM DETECTOR tool do?
Your ability to communicate with family or friends can be hindered by unsolicited email or "spam". If you have your SPAM Detector ON, it will sift and catch unsolicited emails sent to your email account and either present them in the SPAM Detector folder or delete them. (Note: You can adjust your SPAM Detector settings in the Settings/Email Settings tab within Message Center.)
Furthermore, if there are emails you deem as SPAM, you can “Mark as SPAM” by selecting the email from your email inbox list view and select SPAM icon from top menu bar. It will put the email in your SPAM Detector folder and send an email to the VZ Abuse team and third party vendor to evaluate. If it is deemed SPAM, SPAM Detector definitions/rules will be updated.
Please note that marking email as SPAM does not add the email to the Blocked Senders list. Furthermore, SPAMMERs rarely use the same email address more than once to send SPAM.

David42

I agree with another customer- Your outgoing SPAM filter is a problem. I just tried to send my wife (in the next room) and updated IE bookmark file. It was stopped. I even renamed it a couple of different ways. Still blocked. This has happened just too many times to me. Am very unhappy. Further when I clicked on the link in the Verizon notification the website was apparently busy the first couple of attempts. It is also a little confusing as to when should be sent to "spamfaq". Do I just forward the original message or just the message itself?

JasonD52

I agree that the spam filtering system is very poor. I get 50+ spam e-mails daily in my inbox, often from the same sender every day. I mark them as spam, send them to the spam detector, etc. it makes no diference and they're back the next day. Each day I get 1, maybe 2, messages correctly identified as spam.

I called tech support about it and they told me the system is working fine. Tech supports only suggestion was to add the spammers domain to the blocked email list. Yeah, like I'm going to go through that tedious process a few dozen times a day.

Sorry, Verizon, but your email spam protection stinks.

cduffer2

Great TOOOOOOOL verizon....go verizon!

mjs82

the outgoing spam filter SUCKS....

I have had to send email to the spamfilter several times in the last few weeks just to send a reply to en email that I have been corresponding to on a regualr basis. talking about a severl paragraphs of correspondence here, not just one liners with lots of links ect.. and the problem is never resolved in the 30-60 minutes as pommised on the web page...

I'd love to know what triggers the outgoing spam filter to get flagged and hold up an out going email.

I did find that if I send the same email through webmail, it goes right through.. no having to wait more than a hour to get it "approved" by mom and dad.

to bad that cable companies have monopolies on the areas they service... moved 3 miles last year and had to give up comcast, change emails addy, learn new channels and I end up with verizon....

nicksodano

I understand that your SPAM tool does not gaurantee that an email will get blocked. You make specific reference to the fact that spammers often change the address, using it only once. But why not block the suffix part of the email? As you will see in these spam addresses... the end of it is always thesame.

slinked.paver@aplastic325.moieties342.bevan682.tussock974.holyokeitenighttripping.info

sonnetises.additions@homologisation591.mosaically710.Syrianise356.undergrads368.holyokeitenighttripping.info

scorns.interiorised@phenomenal600.valuably295.exenterating110.beacon317.holyokeitenighttripping.info

electrotyper.stressing@kludged659.pubertal188.blued520.fenestella725.holyokeitenighttripping.info

kaleidoscopical.exempt@artifice769.oligosaccharides859.teach10.defusing579.holyokeitenighttripping.info

That would work. They could always change the end too, but thats another story.

One other thing... since these emails are always WAY longer than legitimate emails, why not give ME an option to block ALL emails longer than say, 35 characters? If it turns out that I have a legitimate emailer with a longer address, I can place them in "safe addresses", right?

p2tt12

why is verizons email filter tota;lly useless. i have also a yahoo email account. i get on average one spam that gets thru each day. onverizon i get 25-40 spams that get thru each day. when i send to spamdector.not caught it does nothing but send me an annoying confirmation more spam.

BWhite1

Happy New Year to All

I want to block email addresses . It looks like its not possible . Is this true ?

Bill

sdw97

I set my account to recive only mail from my contact list...but all I get is spam

norrabasil

Wonderful. Thanks for going over what it can do. It would be very nice if I could give it a try. Now would you mind addressing the fact that sub accounts can't even activate the spam filter?

GerryT2

I receive 40 to 50 e-mails a day from a sender starting with 'info' and then followed by numbers, such as info812345@etc. These are all spam. Can all send by infoxxxxx be blocked?

BigJim21

As of 3/1/2012 the spam detection tool is all of a sudden placing 90% of my valid email into the Spam Folder. What has happened and why weren't we warned that a major change was being made? Short of reviewing the folder on a very frequent basis and grading everything I want as "Not Spam", what can be done about this situation.

Up until this week the spam filtereing system was working well in my opinion. It was catching 95% of the spam.

The current situation is unacceptable.

somegirl

@BigJim2 wrote:
As of 3/1/2012 the spam detection tool is all of a sudden placing 90% of my valid email into the Spam Folder. What has happened and why weren't we warned that a major change was being made? Short of reviewing the folder on a very frequent basis and grading everything I want as "Not Spam", what can be done about this situation.
Up until this week the spam filtereing system was working well in my opinion. It was catching 95% of the spam.
The current situation is unacceptable.

Add the valid senders to your Safe senders list.

ErnieLane

How do I get to "Settings/Email Settings tab within Message Center"? Is that in Verizon Webmail or where?

somegirl

@ErnieLane wrote:
How do I get to "Settings/Email Settings tab within Message Center"? Is that in Verizon Webmail or where?

Yes, in webmail. Click on Settings, then the Email Settings tab within the screen that comes up after that.

mjp11

I have SPAM detector on, but still getting 4-6 SPAM emails a day from ".in" sources. I want to try to filter for them. What are valid wildcard characters for setting filters?

somegirl

@mjp1 wrote:
I have SPAM detector on, but still getting 4-6 SPAM emails a day from ".in" sources. I want to try to filter for them. What are valid wildcard characters for setting filters?

There are no wildcard characters for mail filters. Are they .info addresses or just .in?

tns

@somegirl wrote:
@mjp1 wrote:
I have SPAM detector on, but still getting 4-6 SPAM emails a day from ".in" sources. I want to try to filter for them. What are valid wildcard characters for setting filters?
There are no wildcard characters for mail filters. Are they .info addresses or just .in?

Hi somegirl,

I too have noticed a huge increase of spam from .in locations. Technically these are from India, but I think they are just being used instead of .info, and some are probably phoney.

You can write some rules fo have Verizon EMAil to block for things included in emails, effectively doing a wildcard. But checking for ".in" in the from field might catch more then some people want.

Myself, I use Windows Live Client and some PC based spam filters. After this huge increase (I got 30 ".in" in one day), I decided to active the filter on all high level foreign domains except for a couple where I have friends. Since I don't have these filters auto delete, I just do a quick scan of the "spam" folder to see if any good email is caught.

I do have the Verizon spam filter turned on as well, but typically go to online email just once in awhile to check for mail that was incorrectly marked as spam.

mjp11

Thanks to you both for your replies. Will try a few other things to get rid of them. Surprised the SPAM detector is not picking them up.

alexcar

I have spam detector on and still get lots of spam in my inbox. For me its not working. When I get the email i check that they are spam and they go the the spam folder. But then the next day or so i get more of the spam. I m so upset about this. I had msn account and never had this problem. Spam would go directly to junk and never reach my inbox. I have had this problem for months now. Hope you can help me found a solution.

tom739

I have the exact smae problem. I get repeated spams even with the filter on. Verizon's spam filter does not work for me.

Tom

DLH540

My Spam Detector has been on and NO emails are ever caught there. I bring my Verizon account into Outlook on my laptop and true Junk Mail is caught there. These are .in and .info emails primarily. What do I need to do for Spam to be detected? No, I'm not going to add every address into a block list. The detector is just not working correctly for me.

tns

The verizon email does allow you to write filters. You can block users that contain say ".in".

FIOSGlitch

When it come to SPAM Verizon is a pathetic joke!

Sadly, this joke isn't funny, as it is literally destroying our business!

Several times a day we designate incoming e-mails as SPAM, but NEVER - NOT ONCE - has Verizon's crummy spam detection tool blocked any of them from littering our INBOX the very next day - if not sooner!

WHAT'S WORSE is that same piece of crap is blocking outgoing e-mails that we are trying to send to our business partners, vendors, associates and friends.

We have never SPAMMED nor have we ever sent an e-mail to more than 20-25 of our contacts.

To add insult to our ire, that lemon blocks e-mails that we are trying to send to only one of our contacts.

Every time one of our e-mails are erroneously blocked we dutifully forward a copy of the blocked e-mail to Verizon's White List Department @ spamdetector.update@verizon.net, as Verizon requires.

Apparently, they are all either asleep, passed out drunk or just not there, because in the last 36-hours we have forwarded two (2) of our erroneously blocked e-mails - one to a business partner and one to our graphic artist - to them on 7-separate occasions each - all to no avail, as both continue to be blocked.

We have been with Verizon and Verizon Wireless for at least 10-years, and never had a problem that couldn't be fixed.

Well, that is definitely NOT THE CASE with this SPAM Detector Tool.

You can't disable it, and there is no one at Verizon that can help you.

YOU'RE TOTALLY SCREWED!

So if anyone reading this is considering signing up with Verizon FIOS - DON'T DO IT, because you'll be SCREWED JUST LIKE WE ARE!!!

Verizon is so crummy that their own "spell checker" here thinks we should replace "FIOS" with "BIOS" in this posting.

**bleep**!

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