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Spam Catchers Block Latest Crypto-Gram

Posted by timothy on from the unintentional dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Bruce Schneier sent out a note about SpamAssassin and possibly other spam filters blocking his excellent Crypto-Gram newsletter. Fortunately you can get it here (early no less!)." Schneier's email reads, in part "Tomorrow I will be sending out the February CRYPTO-GRAM, as I do on the 15th of every month. In the process of creating this month's Crypto-Gram, I discovered that SpamAssassin thinks that this issue is spam, probably because of certain links and descriptions of scams in the text. I have anecdotal evidence that other spam filters block Crypto-Gram as well. ... I'd apologize for the inconvenience, but I'm not sure what I could do to make it less so -- I don't intend to alter my content to accommodate spam filters."

7 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Hopefully SpamAssassin didn't by Chris_Stankowitz · · Score: 5, Funny

    block that important e-mail I was waiting for on enlarging my....never mind, I have to check my e-mail now.

  2. Seems like it worked fine.... by telstar · · Score: 4, Funny

    So he sends out the Crypto-Gram newsletter, then he sends out a note about the Crypto-Gram newsletter. 2 emails to cover what should've been sent as 1. Seems like the spam filter is doing just fine ...

  3. SpamAssassinAssassin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    SpamAssassinAssassin could look at the folder where you put your filtered mail and learn what to pull back out, and flush the rest to /dev/null.

    I'm sure Paul Graham will be glad to write it in lisp.

    Or, of course, we could just do what the obvious solution is: get in a P.O. Box, send out spam for herbal viagra and penis enlargement, and when you get the checks in the mail HUNT THE CUSTOMERS DOWN AND KILL THEM.

    It's simple, really.

  4. Re:The problem with content filtering by Forgotten · · Score: 2, Funny
    The problem is that content filtering approaches usually only analyze the "spamminess" of a piece. They usually don't analyze the "goodness" of a piece. So if I put "hot teens go crazy for debt-free viagra while earning $$$ from home" in the middle of some fine Shakespeare, that will get flagged as spam.

    Nor would you be wrong to insert that, since that's roughly the Cliff's Notes reduction of several Shakespeare plays.

  5. Re:The problem with content filtering by Tricot · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...if I put "hot teens go crazy for debt-free viagra while earning $$$ from home" in the middle of some fine Shakespeare, that will get flagged as spam.

    eMerchant of Venice. Act I Scene IV, right?

  6. Funny until it's something trully important... by Prof.Phreak · · Score: 2, Funny

    An employer of mine sent out a very important e-mail with "IMPORTANT - MUST READ" in the title, and guess how many people got it? All thanks to wonderful e-mail filters...

    --

    "If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy

  7. Irony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I don't intend to alter my content to accommodate spam filters

    But spammers will.