Spam filters are not perfect

To most (all?) readers of this site, it should be obvious that when you want to get rid of spam on your system, one of the steps you take is to install a spam filter of some sort.
I would also hope that the same people that would do such a thing wouldn't assume that such a system is foolproof and in fact some messages that aren't spam will get blocked if your settings are too strict.

Which is the gist of what this article is getting at.

LIKE MANY PEOPLE these days, Jason Kim and Linda Crasco rely heavily on e-mail for their work running a small educational research and evaluation company in Norwood, Mass. And like many people, they get plenty of spam, some 400 unwanted junk e-mails daily.

So when their company, Systemic Research, first installed a spam filter on its server 18 months ago, they were impressed by the noticeable reduction in the amount of spam they received.

Several months ago, Kim and Crasco were at a meeting when they ran into a program director they knew from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She greeted them coolly. Puzzled, Kim and Crasco asked what they might have done to offend her.

As it turned out, she had sent Kim and Crasco an e-mail message suggesting that they work together on a grant application. The application deadline had since passed, and the acquaintance was more than a little miffed that she had gotten no response from them.

The two entrepreneurs were flabbergasted. Not only did they have no idea the e-mail had been sent, they had no idea that it had been snuffed out as junk.

Although I should duly note that on one of my accounts which gets the most spam, while I do keep two days worth of blocked spam "just in case", I am admittedly too lazy to go through it everyday to see if any of it was/is indeed important.
I did this for many months when I first put the system into place and then eventually was seeing so few results from it that I have long since stopped doing the daily searches.
But if I hear that someone sent me something, or if I know that I should be getting an e-mail, but don't see it - then I will search the logs and then usually add that person to the whitelist to prevent future issues. (for instance my mom's e-mails were setting it off for a variety of reasons)

Posted by Eric at August 16, 2004 01:39 PM | TrackBack