[LINK] getting rid of image spam

[Adam Todd]

At 07:04 AM 28/10/2006, Kim Holburn wrote:
>Nice technique for getting rid of image spam.  Applies only to Apple
>Mail.app but could probably be made to work in other mail clients.
>
>http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/08/01/mailapp-rule-fix-for-image-spam/
>
>>He noticed that the image spam emails always have two
>>distinguishing marks: they come from a different address each time
>>and the Content-Type header begins with "multipart/related".

Actually I'm trying some filters on this very matter presently.

I've been hoarding SPAM messages for about 5 years and it's reasonably true 
that most (95%) of SPAM containing images has the content-type herder set 
as described.

What I don't have to prove yet, whether using such a rule will trap 
intended mail with images from being delivered.

 From a few "genuine" messages I have received they contain a header similar:

Content-Type: multipart/related;
         type="multipart/alternative";
         boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C6051A.7E7799D2"

Content-Type: multipart/related;
         boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0009_01C5F376.773241C0"


So to be honest, filtering it to /dev/null might result in you NOT getting 
mail you actually do want to get.

However, as I intend putting this into a Challenge/Response system, the 
sender will be able to authorise the message through, if they aren't 
already in the whitelist :)

But I'd say filtering it in your Mail Client might lead you to have to 
spend hours filtering through a junkbox trying to find good mail, rather 
than the other way around where your good mail stands out in it's larger 
collective in your inbox.