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Wagonboss's profile

Contributor

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1 Message

Wednesday, June 13th, 2018 5:06 PM

block unwanted e-mails

I block unwanted e-mails from the Spam folder, but they continue to come in. Next step.

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

Expert

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15K Messages

6 years ago

There's no way to stop the yahoo spam filters from placing stuff in the spam box they think is spam because they have precedence over any user defined settings (filters, blocked addresses).  Valid stuff that gets filtered into there needs to be repeatedly flagged as "not spam" in the hopes the spam filters eventually get trained.  The spam box is cleared about once a month so you really don't have to clear it unless you want to to keep it manageable.

Tutor

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7 Messages

6 years ago

Sure there is a way. Those spam filters operate according to instructions created by programmers. All the programmers need to do is to instruct the filters to allow the user to block by IP Address, and for that to take priority over everything else. 

The way the spam filters currently work is a bunch of hokey. All they do is block according to email address, and not by IP Address. So the spammers just switch email addresses indefinitely and they will never be stopped. I see the same emails coming into my spam folder every day, even though I delete and block them twice a day, morning and night. Allowing me to block by IP Address would put a screeching halt to that, and eventually spammers would be entirely stopped because everyone would be blocking their IP Address.

 

I get sick and f'n tired of this crap. Especially when it would be so easy to stop it. End of story. PERIOD.

Expert

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15K Messages

6 years ago

@mark3069

The solution is correct within the boundaries imposed by yahoo as they are today.  I never said anything about what could and couldn't be done.  Many decent email services do supply additional facilities.  Yahoo is just not what I would call as decent email service.

 

Tutor

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7 Messages

6 years ago

Yes, you are correct. I just wish AT&T Yahoo would get their act together about spam, and let us block IP Addresses instead of by email address. I had Mozilla Thunderbird for awhile, but didn't really like their email program and so came back to AT&T. Other than not letting us block by IP Address, I like AT&T Yahoo email a lot.

Expert

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15K Messages

6 years ago

I have removed the solution tag to post 3.  That is not a solution to your problem so I don't know why you flagged it as such.

Tutor

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7 Messages

6 years ago

All you did was explain how the spam filter works, and you did not provide any solution at all to Wagonboss's problem. At least I offered a solution, although AT&T Yahoo does not employ it. So maybe you should remove the solution to your post also, since your's was not a solution but just an explanation. Maybe I should leave this entire forum if this is the way it's going to be here, because I can get the same STUPID from most of the AT&T customer service representatives when I call them. If you come back with a snarky response then I am gone ..... permanently.

Expert

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15K Messages

6 years ago

@mark3069

All you did was explain how the spam filter works, and you did not provide any solution at all to Wagonboss's problem.

That's your opinion.  The "solution" that the OP flagged as a solution was explanation of the facts as they exist and the OP saw fit to flag that.

 

At least I offered a solution, although AT&T Yahoo does not employ it.

So in reality, for at/yahoo, yours is not a solution either.  I don't answer in what might be, I answer in what is.  Also given that IPs in the headers can be stripped or replaced with IPs like 127.0.0.1 it is not a reliable test for a spammer.  And neither is the absence of these IPs either since you can have a SMTP server that permits its users to do that for legitimate email, i.e., it's done for privacy.  Also there's all the routing IPs, so just which one would you look at?  For the IP in any one of the routing headers?  Also just creating IP blocking is too specific and not general enough.

 

A better method, again not a solution because it's one of those "might be" ideas is to have more powerful filter rules where (a) user defined filters have precedence over the att/yahoo spam filters, (b) allow pattern matching in the filter matching rules, (c) allow the user to specify a list of headers to test (replaces and extends From, To, Subject), (d) allow discard ("drop on the floor") action as an additional choice to moving to a mailbox.  Discard is similar to blocking since the user would never see the matching email.  Indeed with all these changes you wouldn't even need a separate blocking setting.

 

That is a more general solution.  It would allow what you want by simply testing the header type for the IP and discarding the email that matched.  Indeed you could check for a whole range of IPs with a pattern like [123.456.*.*].  And it would solve all those complaints about the desire to discard all that cbd.*de spam or *@*.pw.

 

The problem here IMO is that att/yahoo webmail is targeted at the unsophisticated user who knows nothing about email headers and probably barely knows there are even filter rules in the first place.  And in general certainly nothing about regular expressions or globbing.  So they have what they have because they think it is "good enough" for the majority of their users, and it probably is.  So we're back to reality again.

 

Maybe I should leave this entire forum if this is the way it's going to be here, because I can get the same STUPID from most of the AT&T customer service representatives when I call them. If you come back with a snarky response then I am gone ..... permanently.

You're choice.

Tutor

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7 Messages

6 years ago

Thanks for a detailed explanation. I have researched this subject online quite extensively recently, because I really really really hate spam, and I feel like I am being violated when spammers barrage me with their emails, and some of what you wrote about are things that I read about in my online research. Unfortunately, based upon my own research and what you said in your last post, it appears that there is nothing I can do, from a standalone spam blocking point of view, apart from AT&T Yahoo's internal spam-blocking program. AT&T Yahoo only allows 1000 blocked email addresses, and so after I reach the blocking limit I won't have any tools to use to block spammers, even though blocking email addresses does not really stop spammers permanently. It upsets me to no end that I can't put an end to spammers once and for all. I would think with AT&T Yahoo's resources that they could do better than they do at letting us stop spammers permanently. I know my original response was not a solution, and was only a suggestion as to what I feel AT&T Yahoo might do to help us stop spam permanently, but I feel that you had no right to remove the solution tag on it that Wagonboss put on it. I am sure he knew that it was not a solution, but only a proposal, and he was just showing that he agreed with it and appreciated it, by marking it as a solution. So please from now on just remove tags on your own posts, and leave other's posts alone. 

Tutor

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3 Messages

6 years ago

There is a function with e-mails in your spam folder to BLOCK & DELETE all spam e-mails selected. I selected ALL within the spam folder (dozens). A popup window appears confirming the e-mails you choose to BLOCK & DELETE, however the function is not working. I am using Chrome. I've logged out & back in. None of the spam e-mails in the spam folder were deleted AND BLOCKED. Any answers? 

 

NOTE: The BLOCK function is found when you click on "MORE" or the ellipsis. To add one by one under Settings to Block would take several hours/days/weeks, I tried *cbd@ since many appear from this user but it doesn't recognize * as a derivative of the e-mail. Any suggestions ? 

Tutor

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3 Messages

6 years ago

There is a function with e-mails in your spam folder to BLOCK & DELETE all spam e-mails selected. I selected ALL within the spam folder (dozens). A popup window appears confirming the e-mails you choose to BLOCK & DELETE, however the function is not working. I am using Chrome. I've logged out & back in. None of the spam e-mails in the spam folder were deleted AND BLOCKED. Any answers? 

 

NOTE: The BLOCK function is found when you click on "MORE" or the ellipsis. To add one by one under Settings to Block would take several hours/days/weeks, I tried *cbd@ since many appear from this user but it doesn't recognize * as a derivative of the e-mail. Any suggestions ? 

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