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| Thread ID: 31865 | 2003-04-02 19:35:00 | OT (sort of) - Anyone not know about the Nigerian scam? | robo (205) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 132994 | 2003-04-02 23:17:00 | There's an outfit called voila.fr that seems to mediate about 90% of the ones I get at work. They should definitely come in for attention. We're "in beta" on one particular spam filter; most Nigerians rate about 10-15 as it's currently adjusted, and some "legitimate" emails (such as effusive vendor media releases) touch the same range. And I admit to a struggle with my conscience yesterday; I received (at home) a piece of undeniable spam promoting a genuine item I might actually want to buy (no, not a bloody Pasta Pot). Would I become one of the "fifteen idiots in one thousand" (quote from the inventor of the Death2Spam filter) that perpetuate spam by replying to it? I gave it a miss purely because of the marketing technique. I just hope the 14 others might some day be persuaded to do the same thing. And I reiterate whay I've said in print a couple of times; Government(s) getting serious about spam might be a good start to solving the problem. Steve B |
Steve Bell (1009) | ||
| 132995 | 2003-04-03 01:50:00 | Whitcoulls art thy only vendor of choice. Not sure that will help but $10 on special now and again is cheap even if just to use pages for personal hygeine matters. You sure you need something that simple? robo |
robo (205) | ||
| 132996 | 2003-04-03 01:53:00 | It's theft of time and bandwidth, nothing less. And yet, why do I get spam filter reports on how likely it is to be spam and I still get the damn email? What is the point of that? robo. |
robo (205) | ||
| 132997 | 2003-04-03 02:05:00 | It's a beta test (I assume you're in the same "testing community"). The proposal was that all mails above 10 be cut off, but as I mentioned, some "legitimate" mails are scoring above 10, and some Nigerians and other spam marginally below. Not to mention the Sierra Leonian who scored 0. Ask Kal B what the latest progress is, and when we actually start using the thing (if ever). Steve B. |
Steve Bell (1009) | ||
| 132998 | 2003-04-03 04:33:00 | Oh yes robo, my Excel skills are so limited that I only plumb the first 2% of its capabilities. :8} I want to to some repetitive caculations on several columns of figures, deriving averages from two and putting the answer in a third, plus similar statistical manipulation of various other columns against each other to finally produce bar charts illustrating deviation from norm etc. I already do all this manually so it can't be that hard. I figure your book should be pitched at the about the right level, somewhere between D'oh and Hmmm.........Can it really do that? I'll let you know after I visit Whitcoulls and have a sneak pre-purchase read. :D Cheers Billy 8-{) :| |
Billy T (70) | ||
| 132999 | 2003-04-03 05:22:00 | > It is a completely sad fraud, and only people without an internet > connection wouldn't have heard of it . Unfortunately you are wrong about that Robo . Our local newspapers regularly publish warnings about the latest scams doing the rounds in our letterboxes . Not sure if they are Nigerian or otherwise but it is the same kind of thing . It is often elderly people with no dollars or sense who respond and get their pockets burnt . |
tommy (2826) | ||
| 133000 | 2003-04-03 05:59:00 | The Nigerian and similar schemes were around before the Internet . There have always been greedy idiots . There have always been greedy crooks to exploit them . Evolution doesn't seem to stop them breeding . People keep voting for politicians too . It's a similar pathology . B-) |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 133001 | 2003-04-03 09:41:00 | Hmmm... Robo's tome on Excel at 10bux from time to time at Whitcoulls being discussed in association with Nigerian scams. Now what is one to make of that? |
rugila (214) | ||
| 133002 | 2003-04-03 20:23:00 | You can at least (says Kal) recognise spam as spam in your in-box and delete it without reading. Or you could program your email client to dump everything with the word SPAM in the heading or body (inserted by the filter), into a separate mailbox. But as the filter is currently performing, it might be risky. In my review of Death2Spam a while ago (in alpha-beta at the time), I mention the gymnastics involved in protecting users from actually downloading lengthy spam, while at the same time making sure you can download the body of legitimate mails erroneously filtered. Mailwasher, IMO has that right; D2S is still working it out (last I saw). But for my money D2S is a more accurate filter and the cosmetics of it make it easier to operate. Steve B. |
Steve Bell (1009) | ||
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