Darxus

At what point do I blacklist all email from hotmail.com?

darxus

2/10/10 04:48 pm

I've gotten 5 spams verified (by SPF) from hotmail in the last 6 days. I reported the first 4. Since November 1 I've only gotten legit email from one hotmail account. Email I would not have minded missing. Hotmail is now a significant source of spam my filters don't catch. At what point to I blacklist all email from hotmail?

Do any legitimate users still use hotmail?

• Tags:
  spam

• 10 comments
• Leave a comment

• plumtreeblossom

  2/10/10 09:51 pm (UTC)

  

  I have a hotmail that I only use for online shopping.

  • Reply
  • Thread

• coraline

  2/10/10 10:29 pm (UTC)

  

  my best friend still only uses hotmail. it's irritating.

  • Reply
  • Thread

• beowabbit

  2/10/10 10:37 pm (UTC)

  

  If you mean you yourself, then whenever you feel like it.
  
  If you’re administering a mail server for other users, then you probably want to take other opinions into account.
  
  If you want actual data to help make a decision, maybe you could take all the hotmail addresses from your addressbook and see how many of them are still valid and get a response.
  
  (I've only got 20 in my addressbook and most of them are old, but one is my sister. In fact, I had to decrease the score of a Hotmail-specific SpamAssassin score in order to see mail from her.)

  • Reply
  • Thread

• kragar00

  2/10/10 11:06 pm (UTC)

  

  I still use hotmail and my parents were married when I was born, so I'm legitimate. Granted, I don't email you, but that's not what you asked...

  • Reply
  • Thread

• perspicuity

  2/10/10 11:30 pm (UTC)

  

  tons of legitimate users still use hotmail
  
  i get more spam from yahoo, but a few people i know are in there too...
  
  mostly the filters are dealing quite well
  
  #
  

  • Reply
  • Thread

• milktree

  2/11/10 02:07 am (UTC)

  

  You're saying that less than one spam a day is a big enough problem to make it worth potentially dropping all email from one provider?
  
  

  • Reply
  • Thread

  • darxus

    2/11/10 02:08 am (UTC)

    

    One spam a day making it through all my spam filtering. I may be about to fix that.

    • Reply
    • Parent
    • Thread

• ordinary spam filtering will never be, can never be 100%

  ekzept

  2/11/10 03:58 am (UTC)

  

  Ordinary spam filtering (done with ordinary chemical means, that is) will never be and indeed can never be 100%. In my experience extraordinary measures, like blacklisting, tend to simply propagate misery to users who really are not involved. Spammers and phishers are getting increasingly clever, disguising their email as bank notices, Amazon notices, Lands End notices, and so on, so if the filter is going to segregate it will need to do so on other than content.
  
  Worse, origins of spam float, are dynamic, are controlled by motherships, so even extraordinary measures are difficult.
  
  I'd say y'need to put up with the stuff, get good at filtering away the email that's rubbish and recovering email that isn't (do you train your spam filters each day?), and then, if you want to help, go provide technical help and resources to Kevin's Project Honeypot,
  
  http://www.projecthoneypot.org
  
  See
  
  http://www.ltsnet.net/NMMC2009/P_Xu_Spammer_Networks_NMMC2009.pdf
  
  for details, taken from
  
  http://www.ltsnet.net/NMMC2009/nmmc_slides.html
  
  
  
  

  • Reply
  • Thread

• morbidiqua

  2/11/10 03:55 pm (UTC)

  

  Pat_man_ta uses hotmail just because it has been his email address for so many years. I don't even know if you know him though.

  • Reply
  • Thread

  • tech_charles

    2/14/10 06:53 am (UTC)

    

    I run several community sites where maybe 40% of the members registered with a hotmail address, (and are real people).
    
    In my experience, it's hotmail users who get the worst deal of all. Admins who think they might not be real, over-zealous spam filters killing registration e-mails, and probably not confident enough to approach the support team for help.
    
    Imagine having trouble registering for a website and being told to get a new e-mail address and a new browser. The cost might not matter, but what about learning how to use it?
    
    Perhaps in ten years time we'll be alienated for still using LJ or still using e-mail...

    • Reply
    • Parent
    • Thread