SPAM email has returned

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › SPAM email has returned

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GEOMAX

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Ultimate Geek

#2022147 24-May-2018 22:12

not where you said in the view menu. If you look in the SMX help etc you will find a reference to the view menu to send spam to them. It is not in the webmail view menu.

How it gets to SMX mail service from SPAM folder ???

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Oblivian

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#2022155 24-May-2018 22:26

GEOMAX:

not where you said in the view menu. If you look in the SMX help etc you will find a reference to the view menu to send spam to them. It is not in the webmail view menu.

Come again? Re-read. I didn't mention any menu called view..

Yep. Theres a menu when selecting for view source and so on, and one of them is report

'selecting' being 'a spam message'

How it gets to SMX mail service from SPAM folder ???

The spam folder, is monitored. The same way they can tell when they are 30 days old to delete them. So when new ones arrive/reported it knows.

However SMX really doesn't have much to do with their mail in the sense that it automatically allows Xtra customers to engage them direct, they provide the platform to Xtra, that Xtra pay for. The same way you goto a retailer and not the manufacturer. But filtering and management appears to be of their (xtras) own accord. Which is likely the reason they have stopped mentioning the name and simply 'our provider partners' on social media.

https://smxemail.com/latest-news/spark-brings-email-home-to-new-zealand-mr/

The SMX Managing Messaging solution for Spark is built on the SMX3 cloud integration platform and includes the SMX email security suite, alongside a host of email security and third party email messaging applications.

There is also an upgrade option to ISPs like Xtra, for smart filtering and custom rules they can manage themselves

https://smxemail.com/products/cloud-applications/smx-smartrules/

eracode

Smpl Mnmlst
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#2022176 25-May-2018 01:39

Oblivian:
Not exactly 'pulling ones leg' in confirming yes, the option is available on xtramail.co.nz as he (or she) asked.

There’s no option to ‘report spam’ - which is why I asked you where it is. There’s an option to ‘mark as spam’ - which I regard as something quite different to reporting.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

qwertee

699 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2022240 25-May-2018 08:27

Here is part of the email I received from Spark regarding the spam I keep receiving in my xtra.co.nz email address

I am now using the circle with a diagonal strike on the webmail page

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We have added a new "Mark as Spam" button to the Xtra Webmail. This function is available for individual messages via the hamburger menu in the email message, or at the top of the main inbox (allowing multi-message selection) in the form of an icon. The icon is a circle with a diagonal strike through it. I have attached a photo for your reference.

By doing this, emails marked as spam will automatically be reported to SMX and this process will help contain outbreaks of spam quickly. Please try doing this and let us know if you have any feedback.

For the meantime, please delete any emails like this. I would also suggest to never open any email attachments and do not respond to the email. Do not visit the website in the email. More importantly, do not enter any information into any website.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hi,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

We have received multiple reports about this and it seems like you are not the only customer receiving emails that are meant for m_jackson@xtra.co.nz. These emails are phishing attempts. The said email address has long been suspended in our system. They are more of a nuisance to you, rather than a danger. From what we've noticed, the sender's email address are different each time, that's why marking them as Spam doesn't work instantly. We have raised this to our security team for them to further investigate and see why it's happening to Xtra customers.

For the meantime, please delete any emails like this or continue marking them as spam. I would also suggest to never open any email attachments and do not respond to the email. Do not visit the website in the email. More importantly, do not enter any information into any website.

lisati

63 posts

Master Geek

#2022315 25-May-2018 10:33

I think we're all pretty much aware of the "mark as spam" option that was introduced to Spark's webmail back in January. It's a start, but the discussion here seems to be going round in circles......

There is a difference between flagging unwanted email as junk/spam (hopefully training the filter(s) in the process) and actually taking it one step further by flicking off reports to people who might be interested.

GEOMAX

450 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2022390 25-May-2018 12:06

some interesting replies explaining the process including xtra's responsabilites. Received a PM

from Spark facebook saying their engineers are working on it and hope to have a fix shortly. Only had one today so maybe it may be like yahoo and gone by lunchtime.

GEOMAX

450 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2022775 26-May-2018 08:44

looks like it is now fixed. Reading through replies quoted from xtra it does not look like xtra dropped the ball , they did not pick it up in January.

lisati

63 posts

Master Geek

#2022777 26-May-2018 08:51

I haven't seen any junk that allegedly comes via slai[dot]win server for a couple of days now. This is a relief, since it can be time consuming forwarding the porcine products to Spamcop etc.

GEOMAX

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#2023065 26-May-2018 17:46

I have asked via facebook if their engineers only work monday to friday as some problems have returned.

BlakJak

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#2023113 26-May-2018 19:29

GEOMAX:
I have asked via facebook if their engineers only work monday to friday as some problems have returned.

I hope you guys understand that Spam filtering is an imperfect science, you will always see some leakers, the spammers are working very hard to avoid all the rules that are put in place by the filtering engines to simultaneously define a spam as spam, and not inadvertently define a 'ham' (non-spam) incorrectly as spam.

SMX as I understand it, now use a mix of commercial spam signature engines (so, a worldwide vendor that is constantly updating spam definitions (in much the same way that antivirus definitions are updated), along with some bayesian type stuff (trying to predict spam based on past patterns)... the latter is relative new from the last few years (full disclaimer: I worked for SMX several years ago, before the Spark service was put in place and before the current set of filtering tools was put in place. I was a commercial customer of SMX until my last job-change, however.)

Bottom line is, keep reporting false negatives (leakers) and false positives when you become aware of them. Do so via the buttons in webmail, or if you are using offline mail clients (outlook etc) the SMX support team receive feedback via emailsupport [at] smxemail.com (just comment on it to confirm false positive, or false negative, so they know what action to take). They can manually submit feedback to their back-end vendors or provide other advice depending on the reason email is not doing what you expect.

Someone earlier in thread talks about their spam blocking stats. The fun part with anti-spam is you don't know what you're not getting! The sheer volume of spam delivered to unprotected systems is amazing, the SMX product is one of the best in the market but it's not perfect (no system is).

No signature to see here, move along...

GEOMAX

450 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2023121 26-May-2018 19:46

BlakJak:
GEOMAX:

I have asked via facebook if their engineers only work monday to friday as some problems have returned.

I hope you guys understand that Spam filtering is an imperfect science, you will always see some leakers, the spammers are working very hard to avoid all the rules that are put in place by the filtering engines to simultaneously define a spam as spam, and not inadvertently define a 'ham' (non-spam) incorrectly as spam. SMX as I understand it, now use a mix of commercial spam signature engines (so, a worldwide vendor that is constantly updating spam definitions (in much the same way that antivirus definitions are updated), along with some bayesian type stuff (trying to predict spam based on past patterns)... the latter is relative new from the last few years (full disclaimer: I worked for SMX several years ago, before the Spark service was put in place and before the current set of filtering tools was put in place. I was a commercial customer of SMX until my last job-change, however.) Bottom line is, keep reporting false negatives

(leakers) and false positives when you become aware of them. Do so via the buttons in webmail, or if you are using offline mail clients (outlook etc) the SMX support team receive feedback via emailsupport [at] smxemail.com (just comment on it to confirm false positive, or false negative, so they know what action to take). They can manually submit feedback to their back-end vendors or provide other advice depending on the reason email is not doing what you expect. Someone earlier in thread talks about their spam blocking stats. The fun part with anti-spam is you don't know what you're not getting! The sheer volume of spam delivered to unprotected systems is amazing, the SMX product is one of the best in the market but it's not perfect (no system is).

I have been here since the wild west days of windows 95. (have you ) if you read through my post you will note the transfer of filtering to xtra seems to have a few teething problems.

BlakJak

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#2023123 26-May-2018 20:04

Define 'here'. I've been around a while, and I have at various times in my past worked for Xtra, worked for SMX, worked for other SMX customers, worked for other ISP's and cloud service providers, and worked in anti-Abuse and anti-Spam spaces. So I have plenty of applicable experience.

By teething problems if you simply mean the delivery of spam to your inbox (false negative), then to some degree 'that's life'. I'd take that over the fun that was the Yahoo Bubble :S .

My point was as I said earlier - antispam technology is an imperfect science and as such, perfection should not be expected.

Also, given the complexity of all the moving parts, you shouldn't be surprised if the engineers able to 'make a difference' only work regular business hours. :)

BJ.

No signature to see here, move along...

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