Re: [Rmail] Fighting spam

[Bob Proulx <bob@proulx.com>]

Xavier Maillard wrote:
> with latest Rmail development, what is the simplest method to protect
> myself agaisnt spam ? THere are a few messages that are auto-magicallly
> labeled with a « spam » keyword but I can't find why it happens :)
> 
> I need a way ton instruct this protector with other material to get him
> even better.

IIRC the Rmail rules are able to classify the reading and display of
both non-spam and spam messages but is not a spam classification
engine itself.  For that you would probably look to using SpamAssassin
or another spam classification engine such as BogoFilter or other or
some combination of all of the above.  I am currently using a pipeline
through bogofilter and spamassassin.  However even better is to avoid
receiving the spam in the first place by using a DNSBL such as the Xen
list from Spamhaus.  Best is combined arms tactics using a combination
of available techniques.

You didn't say how email is getting delivered to your system.  It
would be necessary to know this before being able to suggest something
that would fit into that flow.  The classic traditional way is through
the MTA such as Postfix in which case you can use Procmail to run
messages through BogoFilter and SpamAssassin for classification and
then use Procmail to file them into appropriate folders.  But many
(most?) people these days use an IMAP server for email which requires
yet different techniques.

Bob