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May 29, 2007

Spam Filter Failure

I think my Yahoo spam filter just failed. I got a flag saying that I had unread messages in my Yahoo email account. I went and looked-- and there were 500 unread messages! Holy crap, I thought, someone must have used my account on a bad online site or something . As I looked, there was only one unread, new message that was actually for me. All the others were spam messages that, apparently, simply made it through Yahoo's spam filter. Now, this filter isn't the best in the world, but it usually keeps most of the flack from my actual Inbox. Maybe one or two a day make it through, but that's typically it. 497 made it through between my checking that account before lunch and that flag popping up shortly after lunch.
 
Just now I went to check again, maybe 15-20 minutes after having cleaned up the entire list and getting my Inbox back to where it should be. Another 97 spam messages were waiting for me. there were 53 spam messages in the Bulk email folder, so it was still functioning; so why had so many made it into my actual Inbox?
 
I don't know if this means the spammers have hit on a new concept to get around generic spam filters or if Yahoo's just fritz on me today. Either way, that was an unpleasant thing to see.

1 comment:

  1. Looks like it's still working for me. Ugh, it's frustrating to have to change emails because the wrong person/place/website got ahold of an email address. Grrr to that nonsense! Here's hoping that either Yahoo's filter starts catching this stuff for you again or that the transition to a new address is a smooth one for you.

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