Again, Spam is Up

Yet more experts report that they are seeing an increase in junk email on the internet.

Huge Increase in Spam in October Email

Bot nets likely behind jump in spam

As the article above suggests, "bot nets" of hijacked computers may have much to do with the problem.

My own inbox has been subject to a moderate gain - roughly 25%. I've seen reports in various online forums of larger gains with some users getting six times the amount of junk they did previously.

The differences probably have to do with what filter mechanisms are in place. Most users have some type of blocking in place, even if they don't know about it. It may be that spam is only up about 20% - but the amount of spam that gets by the most commonly used spam tools is up 500%.

Virtually all SMTP servers reject at least some messages based on various criteria. So most users are really reporting how much additional spam is making it into their inbox as opposed to how much is sent to them.

I'm of course using SpamButcher for filtering spam, but I'm also counting all the messages that SpamButcher catches. Yes, I've also noticed a small increase in the number of SpamButcher misses, but it still seems to be filtering in the 98% rang.

I've removed as many other message blocking technologies as practical, so it sees almost everything sent my way. For better or worse, I still can't remove certain rules one of my ISPs has set up. For instance, email sent from a non-existent domain will be rejected automatically. I honestly want to get as much spam as possible, as this gives me the best chance of seeing messages that are slipping past and into customer inboxes.

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