Spam

[mercia]

how does my computer know that certain emails are spam and puts them straight into a spam folder ?

[Stunsworth]

Probably by the IP address of the sender. I imagine there's a list of black balled domains.

[Anna]

If the sender of an email is not on my Contacts list it automatically gets sent to the spam folder. It's then easy to check the folder and say it's not spam and it moves to the Inbox. I guess it very much depends on what email system you use. I found I had no spam on Outlook Express but Hotmail became, in the end, unusable.

[neiltingley]

If you are using a hosted mail service like google then there's sophisticated heuristic algorithms that detect spam based on the message content and its sender. gmail is superb at spam blocking. I've moved my own personal email (i.e my domain) to google. Its hard to imagine a better email solution.

[Don Petter]

I find that BT-Yahoo is also very good at filtering out spam before it gets to me (only ten instances since last June, I find on looking at my local folder).

If you go up onto their host mail site you can see what has been found and put in your spam folder there. (It disappears eventually after a set time.)

But a warning! That is all very satisfactory, but with their optional spam filter switched 'off'. I tried switching it to 'on' for a while, thinking it must be a good thing, and did find one or two genuine messages, which I would never have seen, put into that spam folder.

So best to rely on their basic protection, in my experience.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

gmail!!!!

[Pabmusic]

This explains a lot.

For months now I've worried that I might have been mis-sold payment protection insurance. (I've always ticked the 'no' box, but you never know, do you?) And as for whether I'd been in an accident, I've had sleepless nights trying to remember. I really needed advice on getting Viagra, too, but I'd actually given up on that since I realised that I'd need help with 'personal enlargement' first. I'd rather like to relax at an online casino instead - or even play bingo - but I don't know where to start.

Now I find that all the useful communications have been filtered out by a callous, heartless algorithm! I'm speechless.

[Northender]

If you are using a hosted mail service like google then there's sophisticated heuristic algorithms that detect spam based on the message content and its sender. gmail is superb at spam blocking. I've moved my own personal email (i.e my domain) to google. Its hard to imagine a better email solution.

I agree!

[mercia]

just noticed email in my spam folder headed Sandy Hurricane Relief Fund

won't open it