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Fighting spam can be both tricky and challenging. Separating legitimate
mail out from suspicious content occasionaly leads to what are known
as "false positives." "False positive" is the term used when legitimate
mail is incorrectly classified as spam, which is probably worse than
receiving spam.
To combat this situation we can combine two popular anti-spam techniques to ensure that you only receive mail that you want. SpamAssassin is a sophisticated set of filters that can be applied to mail messages to determine if it is spam. Scores are assigned to the message based on the output of the filters, and any message ranking above a certain threshold is considered spam. TMDA is a challenge/response system that can be used to require unknown senders to confirm messages sent to you. Usually TMDA is configured so that mail from any address that is not in your "whitelist" will be sent a verification message, that, once replied to will allow their original message into your mailbox. SpamAssassin and TMDA can be used together in a fashion so that only messages that are tagged as spam by SpamAssassin require a confirmation to TMDA. This means that ordinary mail from friendly associates will pass through the system untouched and unchalleged (unless of course your friends send mail with the characteristics of spam). Only senders whose messages meet the qualifications of spam are sent confirmations. Using this method allows ordinary correspondence to continue as normal, while preventing suspicious bulk mail from reaching your inbox. Return to Antispam. |
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