Spam Detector

[stu357]

My question: How to improve spam detection?

I identify all spam emails as "SPAM" and they go into the Spam Detector folder. I forward all spam emails to: spamdetector.updupdate@verizon.net. It has negligible effect.

Of interest, I use Thunderbird as my email client. It catches much more than Verizon Mail. I have a zoho.com mail accolunt. It catches more than Verizon Mail. Sometimes I wonder if Verizon is in cahoots with the advertizing spammers, e.g. $0.0001 for every spam ad email that it lets through. I know it doesn't make sense but ...

[mdcatdad]

I have the same problem, and have resorted to the same solution since I found out where to forward spam, not that it does any good. 

Verizon told me that flagging spam as such only blocks it from the same IP address/e-mail address.

SpamDetector worked well for years (I've been with FiOS over 4 years now) but recently it's not detecting waves of spam that appear in my Inbox between 0500 and 0600 each morning.

Verizon: what is being done on your end about this? How can we consumers help?

[stu357]

Maybe if we all identify email services that do a better job of spam detection than Verizon, a power-that-be at Verizon might "suggest" to the manager of the spam detection software group that they contact those services and find out what they are doing that is different and better. I would be discouraged to see a NIH attitude exisitng at Verizon. Thanks for your inpuit.

[Elra]

I have the same problem.  I've maxed out the filters (using them to additionally ID spam).  Still getting huge amounts of spam.  Agree, this is a relatively new change.  Is anyone at Verizon caring?  Perhaps we need to get onto social media to publicize?  Or perhaps a local news org? 

[stu357]

Elra,

I've found that the return email addresses of spam email is meaningless to use to filter or block.spam. Adding them to your email settings is an exercise in futility. Looking at the headers of the spam emails that I was receiving I saw that many did not contain an explicit "Recipient" address. Such emails where showing up on the client with no "To:" line. Also, I found some spam emails that contained my email address in the subject line. Thus I created the following filters:

If Subject Contains <my email address@verizon.net> move to SpamDetector
If To does not contain <my email address@verizon.net> delete

I'm not sure yet if filtering with wild-carded IP addresses is effective. I'm hoping that TNS_2 will provide some insight.

If you have yet to create these filters, do so and see if it makes a difference.

Please get back to us and let us know.

Thanks.

Note: I would suggest that you do not unsubscribe from a spam email. Doing so confirms to the spammer that the email address is valid and active. Only unsubscribe from emails from sites in which you have at one time selected to to be added to a mailing list.

[Normx]

Greeting,

full disclosure: I own Verizon stock.

I also us T-bird. I get very little spam. one a month. maybe. But then I'm anal about telling people not to "send this to everyone in your address book", with all of the emails clearly printed in the forward,forward, and more forward.

My biggest problem is sending security updates and best practices to the 10 people who depend on me.

They are arbitrarily flagged as outgoing spam. When I try to send it to the spam updater, it gets flagged again as spam.

This is Verizon's way of telling you to go somewhere else.

I went through this Gen Tel, ATT and Pac Bell.

I have had several moderators tell me, and other users, the email service is "free". If you don't like, go somewhere  else.

Really??? Free???? Just try and get the 6 or so email accounts with yourname@verizon.net without buying Verizon Internet service.

 I give Verizon a C+ for overall service.

The only thing Verizon understands is did you pay your bill last month.

If you did, you are a satisfied customer.

Please don't take this as a defense of Verizon.

I'm just pointing out how big business works.

And as Verizon is a monoploy, you 2 choices. Slim and none, and Slim just left town.

Unless you are prepared to walk away with Slim, Verizon won't change how they do business.

normx

And wait until net nutrality is dead and buried. My last proxy ballet from Verizon had a NO Vote on Net Nutrality.

If you think the cost of internet access is expesive now, boy are you in for a big surprise.

[bruteforce1]

verizon is a spammer part of the problem not the solution

[somegirl]

---

@stu357 wrote:

My question: How to improve spam detection?

I identify all spam emails as "SPAM" and they go into the Spam Detector folder. I forward all spam emails to: spamdetector.updupdate@verizon.net. It has negligible effect.

Of interest, I use Thunderbird as my email client. It catches much more than Verizon Mail. I have a zoho.com mail accolunt. It catches more than Verizon Mail. Sometimes I wonder if Verizon is in cahoots with the advertizing spammers, e.g. $0.0001 for every spam ad email that it lets through. I know it doesn't make sense but ...

---

spamdetector.update@verizon.net is for valid messages that were caught mistakenly by the filter.

spamdetector.notcaught@verizon.net is for spam messages that the filter didn't catch.

Sending to the wrong address works against you.

[bruteforce1]

somegirl

online tech support tells you to report spam to spamnotcaught just fyi both domains are useless no help what so ever

[stu357]

Thanks 'somegirl' for the distinction.  Verizon Support gave me the address with no qualifications. It would seem that Verizon, among other things, needs to do a better job in preparing their support staff.

Of interest, since I posted the forum entry I have not received any of the spam emails that prompted the posting. Coincidence or another example of "rattling the cage"?

Of note, the spam emails that were the most annoying were those that were sent to my account but when displayed would show no "To" addressee". It would seem that there is something that could be detected here to readily identify them.

Thanks to all for your input.

I've been prompted to identify an "Accepted Solution". One would be an entry by the Verizon development team describing what steps they are taking to improve the spam filtering.

[stu357]

Update: I thought that "spamdetector.notcaught@verizon.net" would do the trick but, alas, unreasonable expectations.

Looking at the spam headers, my spam originates from:

119.81.xxx.xxx

144.114.xxx.xxx

149.114.xxx.xxx

193.180.xxx.xxx

Is it possible to direct that all emails received from this IP address be directed into my spam folder or automatically deleted?

[bruteforce1]

@somegirl 

Gold Contributor V

@somegirl

Posts: 2,865

Registered: ‎09-15-2009

Location: Texas

1 Kudo

Re: Spam Detector

Options

‎06-10-2014 05:52 AM

---

@stu357 wrote:

My question: How to improve spam detection?

I identify all spam emails as "SPAM" and they go into the Spam Detector folder. I forward all spam emails to: spamdetector.updupdate@verizon.net. It has negligible effect.

Of interest, I use Thunderbird as my email client. It catches much more than Verizon Mail. I have a zoho.com mail accolunt. It catches more than Verizon Mail. Sometimes I wonder if Verizon is in cahoots with the advertizing spammers, e.g. $0.0001 for every spam ad email that it lets through. I know it doesn't make sense but ...

---

spamdetector.update@verizon.net is for valid messages that were caught mistakenly by the filter.

spamdetector.notcaught@verizon.net is for spam messages that the filter didn't catch.

Sending to the wrong address works against you.

@tns2 

MVP

@tns2

Posts: 1,460

Registered: ‎12-16-2012

2 Kudos

Re: How to stop Verizon from treating non-spam e-mail as spam?

Options

‎06-23-2014 03:10 AM

How do you have the Verizon spam filter set?  Make sure you set it to save spam in a folder rather than deleting it.

Check that folder.  IF the newsletter is going there you can write a rule to allow a copy to be sent to you EVEN if the newsletter is still considered spam.  You should also mark the newsletter as not spam, and hopefully they will update it to stop flagging it.

[bruteforce1]

---

@stu357 wrote:

My question: How to improve spam detection?

I identify all spam emails as "SPAM" and they go into the Spam Detector folder. I forward all spam emails to: spamdetector.updupdate@verizon.net. It has negligible effect.

Of interest, I use Thunderbird as my email client. It catches much more than Verizon Mail. I have a zoho.com mail accolunt. It catches more than Verizon Mail. Sometimes I wonder if Verizon is in cahoots with the advertizing spammers, e.g. $0.0001 for every spam ad email that it lets through. I know it doesn't make sense but ...

---

spamdetector.update@verizon.net is for valid messages that were caught mistakenly by the filter.

spamdetector.notcaught@verizon.net is for spam messages that the filter didn't catch.

Sending to the wrong address works against you.

@tns2 

MVP

@tns2

Posts: 1,460

Registered: ‎12-16-2012

2 Kudos

Re: How to stop Verizon from treating non-spam e-mail as spam?

Options

‎06-23-2014 03:10 AM

How do you have the Verizon spam filter set?  Make sure you set it to save spam in a folder rather than deleting it.

Check that folder.  IF the newsletter is going there you can write a rule to allow a copy to be sent to you EVEN if the newsletter is still considered spam.  You should also mark the newsletter as not spam, and hopefully they will update it to stop flagging it.

[bruteforce1]

How do you have the Verizon spam filter set?  Make sure you set it to save spam in a folder rather than deleting it.

Check that folder.  IF the newsletter is going there you can write a rule to allow a copy to be sent to you EVEN if the newsletter is still considered spam.  You should also mark the newsletter as not spam, and hopefully they will update it to stop flagging it.

[stu357]

So far, here is list of the domain names and thier IP addresses that have initiated spam mails. The information can be found in the email message header. I have enough expereince writing programs that decompose the syntax of a language to know that to write a program that automates picking out this data is rather straightforward. I do not know why it is beyond the technical capabilities of the Verzon technical staff unless there is a reason for not doing it. Possibly, ISPs are legally constrained from blocking emails. A user can but not an ISP. It would be professional to have a Verizon representative respond to that. I can also accept that it is in Verizon's financial interests not to do so. Again, a professional response would be welcomed.

Received from:                                                       ISP and Location

p74NQn6GSS.com ([unknown] [45.64.114.248])   India
 aceyeson.net ([unknown] [103.18.216.148])    India
broachat.net ([unknown] [103.18.217.137])
cytellin.net ([unknown] [103.18.218.101])
foyiller.net ([unknown] [103.18.219.57])
softlayer.com ([unknown] [119.81.45.57])    SoftLayer Dutch Holdings B.V., Singapore
oX2FqMmfM6.com ([unknown] [150.107.106.15])
batastea.net ([unknown] [161.48.68.35])   
76282141215592.com ([unknown] [162.251.1.18])    Virtual VM, Portland, OR
justomra.net ([unknown] [192.25.241.228])    Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA
bioinost.net ([unknown] [192.39.8.59])
bullanus.net ([unknown] [192.39.9.193])
culprico.net ([unknown] [192.72.33.96])
falcidge.net ([unknown] [192.74.210.144])
ensurvin.net ([unknown] [192.171.184.214])    JANET, UK
brionsor.net ([unknown] [192.197.144.120])     US
cariston.net ([unknown] [193.8.212.12])
centains.net ([unknown] [193.39.240.249])
dismarfa.net ([unknown] [194.39.77.230])
cytobiti.net ([unknown] [193.39.95.241])  
canethea.net ([unknown] [194.59.211.212])
cargangi.net ([unknown] [194.127.128.66])
cormerno.net ([unknown] [198.17.239.248])
gicasenh.net ([unknown] [198.89.84.216])  
indynell.net ([unknown] [198.252.183.159])
acryllin.net ([unknown] [199.68.14.201])  
agilover.net ([unknown] [199.68.15.176])
forstove.net ([unknown] [199.187.188.94])
garrefla.net ([unknown] [199.187.189.95])
grasture.net ([unknown] [199.187.190.86])
hayestim.net ([unknown] [199.187.191.239])
burnscan.net ([unknown] [199.201.187.212])
hapencyc.net ([unknown] [203.7.154.216])  
allendat.net ([unknown] [203.24.29.89])   
arlynetp.net ([unknown] [203.24.30.172])
banjaccu.net ([unknown] [203.24.31.132])
backsopt.net ([unknown] [203.24.28.33])
abolsati.net ([unknown] [203.30.187.161])
bursinet.net ([unknown] [203.57.85.148])
adflacil.net ([unknown] [205.142.12.104])
aeringth.net ([unknown] [205.142.13.107])
erimcave.net ([unknown] [205.236.181.175])   Montréal, Canada
EcVsXDiv5.com ([unknown] [212.174.35.65])  
DMuue0V7t.com ([unknown] [212.175.124.191])
ZFAWKRiu.com ([unknown] [212.175.61.68])    Turk Telekom, Turkey

I continue to ferret out this information whenever I receive spam email from one of my Verizon email accounts that is downloaded to my local email client...Thunderbird. Thunderbird readily identifies 99% of them. I do not have Thunderbird configured to delete emails on the Verizon server. I do that manually. Interestingly, most, 98%, of the spam emails are not listed in my emails received at the Verizon server. I don't understand why? An explanation from the Verizon technical staff would be appreciated.

[tns2]

---

@stu357 wrote:

So far, here is list of the domain names and thier IP addresses that have initiated spam mails. The information can be found in the email message header. I have enough expereince writing programs that decompose the syntax of a language to know that to write a program that automates picking out this data is rather straightforward. I do not know why it is beyond the technical capabilities of the Verzon technical staff unless there is a reason for not doing it. Possibly, ISPs are legally constrained from blocking emails. A user can but not an ISP. It would be professional to have a Verizon representative respond to that. I can also accept that it is in Verizon's financial interests not to do so. Again, a professional response would be welcomed.

Received from:                                                       ISP and Location

p74NQn6GSS.com ([unknown] [45.64.114.248])   India
 aceyeson.net ([unknown] [103.18.216.148])    India
...

ZFAWKRiu.com ([unknown] [212.175.61.68])    Turk Telekom, Turkey

I continue to ferret out this information whenever I receive spam email from one of my Verizon email accounts that is downloaded to my local email client...Thunderbird. Thunderbird readily identifies 99% of them. I do not have Thunderbird configured to delete emails on the Verizon server. I do that manually. Interestingly, most, 98%, of the spam emails are not listed in my emails received at the Verizon server. I don't understand why? An explanation from the Verizon technical staff would be appreciated.

---

I haven't researched yourlist but quite possible these are perfectly valid ISP's.  If so Verizon couldn't use the list to block all email from them.  All ISP have some abusers that spam the world.  And the smaller ones are bad at policing their users.

[stu357]

These are all vaid IP addresses.I have begun comparing the IP addresses from the "Received from;" and the "Originating IP". So far, I've found the same. Also, I have found that the combination of the domain names and the origination IP address are unique.

I am not asking Verizon to block these. I am looking to Verizon to tag them as spam and move them to my spam folder on their email server. Thunderbird does not bring down spam to my PC .I'll go to the mail server occassionally to check my spam folder to see if any emil was not spam.

Also, I've observed that the  domain name of the "Received: from" differs from that of the "Return-path:" address in the header, Maybe the Verizon technicians could tag these as spam when this is the case.

Since advertising revenue continues to drive much on the Internet, maybe ISPs should charge spam producers for each email received. Blocked if no pay. Let the advertisers support the Internet. Just an idea. Advertizing income is important for Google, FaceBook, Hulu and others. Why shouldn't ISPs gain from it too.

So many people are making advertizing money at the expense of the end-user. Hulu provides an option, Hulu+. Subscribe to Hulu+ and get less advertisements in their content. Even the United States Post Office receives benefits from processing spam snail mail. Why shouldn't the ISPs? With the ever increasing use of the Internet, bandwidth has to be increased. Who is going to pay for it? I vote for the advertisers and not the end-users. If Verison were to remove their spam detection and lower their cost to me I could live with that. Thunderbird would become my primary defense. In the open source software arena a solution will always emerge.

Keep in mind that the ISPs aren't spamming the world. It is companies that subscribe to the services offered by the ISP. Another consideration: ISPs provide differing subscription fees based upon the number of emails and recipients. The more emails ones sends by individual recipent, the more it costs. The Internet has a finite bandwidth. The more one pumps data into it, the more they should pay to use it. Now, one can assert that the government should be responsible for providing adequate bandwidth. Is it not just another commercial transportation highway? The cost for doing that, then, passes onto the tax payer. Intuitively somewhere along the way those companies that have the most to gain, namely profits, should be contributing more to supporting that highway. Trucking firms pay more in gasoline taxes.What is going to happen when trucks are electrified. There is always something. This argues against net neutrality. Someone has to pay for increasing the bandwidth. Who will it be?

[tns2]

Their are now such thing as Valid spam producers that can be charged.  If they are spamming the ISP's usually will cancel the users access.  Of course some minor ISP and particular some in foreign countries may feel no need to do anything. 

Verizon can't use the fact its from these ISP or that the return address is different (at least by itself) to decide to treat these as spam.  Lots of such cases are valid.  Many GOOD companies that people do business with (i.e. non-spamming companies) use a third party to send mail to their customers.

[stu357]

My impression is that there are companies who originate unsolicited email advertisements as a business venture. My current research with this forum topic reinforces this impression especially when I see the grouping of IP addresses. They are no different than companies who snail mail advertisements to my residence.They pay the USPS to deliver such mail. USPS does not offer any service to hold such mail.

Verizon offers spam detection as part of thier service. The user determines how spam is to be managed. It is not Verizon's responsibility to determine how spam is managed. Verizon's responsibility is to detect it and manage it as the user has indicated.From my expereince Verizon is not meeting its responsibility. I don't understand why. The technology to do so is relatively straightforward. Too many others are doing it. Thus, the technolgy does not appear to be proprietary.

Today I became aware that I'm receiving spam emails in which my email address is not included in the header. Why am I getting it?

My feeling is that if Verizon is not willing to provide a viable spam detection service then it should withdraw it completely.

In writing this I realized that Verizon does not display most spam when I go to my email account directly on the server. It does, though, send it to my Thunderbird client on my PC. I will have to check out the POP3 settings on the server. I'll get back to you.

Thank you for taking the time and effort to engage in this thread.

Re: "Many GOOD companies that people do business with (i.e. non-spamming companies) use a third party to send mail to their customers." Thunderbird seems to do well in discerning the difference. Why can't Verizon?

[tns2]

Rules are

Legal SPAM (and I think Verizon is not allowed to restrict such.  I actually see almost no spam of this kind as unsubscibe does work including, for many companies, a single unsubscribe for all of them.)

must have

1. Unsubscribe compliance.  I.e include way to unsubscribe.  Not that I trust such from serious spammers.
2. Content compliance.  Accurate from lines, Relative subject lines, and valid physical addresses.,  Label if adult contents.
3. Sending behavior rules.  A bunch of these.

A bunch of exempts including companies you do business with, religeous, charities, political.

And yep Thunderbird and other clients often do better prevention.  BUt they aren't subject to the rules that could get Verizon in trouble if they blocked valid email.  And yes Verizon may be playing it to conservatively.

[stu357]

A couple of things first. I am not asking Verizon to block emails. I'm asking Verizon to flag them and let me subsequently confirm the flagging or to unflag them as not spam. In general, I do not "unsubscribe" from email lists from unknown sites. I do not believe it wise to complete/confirm the communication loop. I just trash the emails as I do snail mail without opening to see their content.

So the crux of the problem it is that Verizon does not want to proactively suggest emails as being spam, "valid" or not. I assume by "valid" you mean emails that are sent as advertisements by an established company. One can readily accept that it is in the best financial interest of Verizon not to do so.

OK, it is what it is. Verizon, should do at least the following:

1. Better manage their email users expectations. Inform their users that they do not proactively suggest that an email is spam but will honestly apply filtering and blocking rules established by the users.

2. Provide the users with more effective means for filtering and blocking emails. Namely, based upon my casual review of headers of spam emails:

(a) A selectable option to filter/block any mail that is sent without a date stamp. That is currently detectable for Verizon inserts into the header: "Date-warning: Date header was inserted by vms (Verizon).mailsrvcs.net".

(b) A selectable option to not receive any email that is not specifically sent to that email address. Namely, the header does not not contain the line:
"Original-recipient:....".

(c) Provide the means to filter/block emails sent from specific IP address in which wild card character can be used. For example, I have received spam from:

acryllin.net ([unknown] [199.68.14.201])  
agilover.net ([unknown] [199.68.15.176])
forstove.net ([unknown] [199.187.188.94])
garrefla.net ([unknown] [199.187.189.95])
grasture.net ([unknown] [199.187.190.86])
hayestim.net ([unknown] [199.187.191.239])
burnscan.net ([unknown] [199.201.187.212])
contomen.net ([unknown] [199.233.148.139])
baryersc.net ([unknown] [199.246.32.151])
blueboxa.net ([unknown] [199.246.33.104])

I would like the ability to tag as spam any emails received from 199.187.*.* or maybe even 199.*.*.*.

Note that in these examples, the domain names are meaningless to be used to qualify an email. Also, a full IP address is meaningless. It is only necessary to turn off one's modem at the end of the work day and turn it back on the next to get a different IP address.

Since these advertising companies can readily send out emails for different clients, to ask an email user to identify each individual client email is placing an obstacle in the way of the user. Here is where the "rubber meets the road". Verizon has a choice. Either make it easy for the users to tag emails as spam or not. The domain name in the "Return-path" line in the header or "From" address in the email is as meaningless as the domain name in the "Received" line of the header.

3. Provide the user to export and import the created filtering/blocking rules. In my case, I have several subordinate email address. I would like the means to have the same filtering/blocking rules apply to all of them.

Given your status within the Verizon forum activity, I suspect that you have contact with key Verizon decision makers. I would appreciate it if you would forward this suggestion for their consideration. Keep in mind that my objective for beginning this thread  was to seek ways to improve the "Spam Detection" service provided in Verizon email.

P.S. It as been a long time since I've articulated program specifications. There might be gaps in my thinking.

[stu357]

In an earlier entry, you suggested that the IP address in the "Receive;"and "X-Originating:" line might not the actual ones. Then, what information is in the header that enables one to identify it as spam?

Is it feasible to expect Verizon to flag potential spam emails without incurring any legal or financial problems? Verizon has available considerable data...every header that it processes...in which to mine for meaningful information. I'm not suggesting that it mines the contents of emails like other email providers appear to do.

Thanks.

[stu357]

7/22/14

I don't know if it was something that I did or that Verizon did but for the past two days, spam detection on Verizon email is as I would expect /want it to be. Spam emails are being directed to my SpamDetector folder and they are not being downloaded onto my PC client.

On Sunday I cleared all the entries in my email settings for filtering and blocking. Then I added the following as filters:

If Subject Contains <my email address@verizon.net> move to SpamDetector
If To does not contain <my email address@verizon.net> delete

If From Contains 5.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 23.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 31.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 37.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 45.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 77.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 91.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 92.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 93.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 103.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 107.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 117.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 119.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 144.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 149.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 150.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 161.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 162.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 192.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 193.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 194.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 195.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 198.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 199.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 202.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 203.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 205.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 206.*.*.* move to SpamDetector
If From Contains 212.*.*.* move to SpamDetector

I'm not sure if the wild-card IP addresses are being applied. I periodically scan the contents of the SpamDectector folder to insure that no valid email is flagged as spam.

Has anyone else experienced improvements in Verizon's spam detection?