Tech Support Exchange with Dreamhost, in which they completely ignore the question I ask.

01-jv

I've been getting A TON of spam hitting my inbox lately. 20+ messages a day.
sometimes more. Usually in the topics of :

- Medicare
- Rewards cards (amazon, home depot)
- Background Checks
- Lawsuits
- EZPass
- Sex offender notification
- Auto Warranty

Are you updating anti-spam rules soon?

02-dh

Hello Jonathan,

I'm happy to assist you. To help us troubleshoot this issue we will need
you to send the us the full headers from one of the spam emails that
you've received. For details on getting the "full headers" please see the
page listed below: 

http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Viewing_Full_Headers

Once you have that information please send it to us and we will
troubleshoot this issue further.

Best regards,

03-jv

I could send you a bunch of RAW emails if you want a sample of spam messages.

the headers alone will not help you though.

For about 95% of them, they're NOT matching any spam rules -- and scoring 0. 
the rest are scoring under 1 point. 

The problem isn't tweaking my config, it's that the spam rules dreamhost has
are out-of-date.

The system is definitely still working and I have lots of filtered spam, that
even scores over 11(!)

The problem is just that spammers have changed tactics.

04-dh

Please send us several of your most recent spam headers that we will be
able to continue digging into what might be
causing this spam deluge to occur on your email address. 

Best regards,

05-jv

... lots of spam ....

06-dh

Hi there Jonathan!

All of those messages were scored pretty low. I'm not sure how the spam
filters are set and how they're setup to score messages, but in the case
that the messages makes it passed our anti-spam filters, it would be best
to setup custom message filters instead to help combat the junk that's
not quarantined. These filters can be setup to delete the messages so
that any message that fits the custom filter setup description AND makes
it passed our anti-spam filters, it will be deleted.

The messages sent always go through the junk server first, so the custom
filters won't help on messages quarantined to junk, but it will delete
messages if the junk filter doesn't catch and quarantine it first.

http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Message_Filters

That is your second line of defense against junk messages if the
anti-spam filter doesn't catch it. 

Spammers are paid to find creative ways of getting messages through.
Often times, it's done through the spoofing of message headers by sending
messages from another user other than their own. Changing the 'From' well
help bypass black listing of domains and mail users, but there are other
things that can be done to help such as those custom filters above. 

You'll want to go through the junk headers for messages not caught by the
anti-spam filters and look for common trends with regards to key words
and phrases within the message header so you can stop them from being
delivered. 

That would be the best way to combat the junk messages you're getting. I
hope that helps!

Please reply back if you have any other questions at all. 


Thank you kindly,
------

07-jv

Are you fucking kidding me?

I specifically stated already that anti-spam was working on my account and
there was an influx of messages that scored 0 or very low.

I specifically asked when/if Dreamhost plans to update the spam filters --
which now give me a daily inbox that is around 95% spam.

I did not ask for help in diagnosing email headers or spam rules. I asked a
simple non-technical question. You could have just answered "there are no
plans to do this". Instead this entire exchange has completely ignored the
question I was clearly asking each time.

08-dh

Hi there!

Sorry about that. I looked through the headers since there were so many,
and in all honesty, I missed your main concern. To answer that question,
I'm afraid we aren't looking to update how the spam filters are set to
score the messages, though the issue has been brought up before. 

There is certainly something weird about how the rules for the filters
are setup as I've tested our filters many times and junk messages I've
sent on purpose were barely being scored higher than our default setting
of 4.

The short answer: No. 

The long answer: No, but you do have other options on filtering the junk
through custom filters and if you wish, you can even setup your own third
party spam filters to run before hitting our MX machines for delivery. 

Sorry I missed your main concern in my previous reply. Please reply back
if you have any other questions.


Thank you kindly,
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