Re: How has the spam problem changed in the past decade?

On Sun, 17 Mar 2013, Rob McEwen wrote:

> So why do I say that... mail hosters congratulating themselves for
> blocking 99% of the spam is so "2000s"
> 
> Because, at the end of the day, the end user doesn't really care about
> the 200 botnet spams an ISP blocked that day. He is bothered by the 4
> spams that made it past the filter that day. (whereas, 10 years ago,
> that end user would be DELIGHTED to ONLY get 4 spams past the filter in
> one day).

Amen to that.  This is exactly what I find.  In establishments where 
effective measures of whatever sort have been taken to reduce spam, the 
end recipients become accustomed to not having the headache that many here 
will remember from 10 years ago.  They grumble about the very few spams 
that do get through, and they grumble about the 'legit' messages that 
didn't for whatever reason.  If it comes up, they are always absolutely 
astonished when they find out how much stuff they have been protected 
from.

Some proportion of time is now spent fielding complaints from people about 
the email protection measures blocking too much of what they wanted, and 
not blocking enough of what they didn't want.  I long ago came to 
conclusion that there is little chance of pleasing everyone, or even 
anyone, so I pretty much maintain the status quo and send variants on 
canned answers and leave it at that.

Jethro.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
Jethro R Binks, Network Manager,
Information Services Directorate, University Of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

The University of Strathclyde is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, number SC015263.