[LINK] spam stats

[Craig Sanders]

i just checked ran my spam-stats script on last week's mail log file.
this is on my small home server, which handles mail for about half a
dozen users (friends and family) in 4 domains.

in one week, 49225 spams were blocked. that's 168 per hour.  4.9 per
minute. or about one spam every 12 seconds. a further 94 got through my
postfix smtp-level filtering to be tagged by spamassassin and diverted
to a spam-trap folder. about half a dozen got through both postfix and
spamassasin rules and were delivered to a real mailbox.

all this to deliver just under 900 legit messages to half a dozen mail
users on my system.

i estimate that i spend at least 4 or 5 hours per week examining my
spam-traps, creating and updating anti-spam rules, monitoring log files
- all so that email remains usable, and not buried under the deluge of
spam. i've been doing this for over 10 years, sometimes more than 5
hours, sometimes less...but it's a constant drain on my time and energy.


this is outrageous. i'm sick of it. unfortunately, i've got no choice
but to continue doing it because i don't want to give up email. and
there's no other way to do it, anti-spam laws are basically ineffectual
and always will be - even with spammers like Mansfield in Perth being
fined millions, he isn't and wasn't even a significant part of the
problem. he was a big spammer here in australia, but insignificant
compared to some of the american spammers.



craig

ps: one of the worst things about this is having to examine the
spam-traps. that means i have to scan the spam captured by spamassassin
(anywhere from 3 to a dozen messages per day...fortunately, the vast
majority is rejected during the smtp session and i don't have to see it)
in order to construct new rules to block the new spammer techniques.
the kind of filth i have to read is sickening. it's vile, repulsive
stuff highlighting the worst things about humans - stupidity, greed,
ignorance, and obsessions with nasty, degrading porn-film style sex.

pps: actual stats:

ganesh:/etc/postfix# spam-stats.pl /var/log/mail.log.0
      1	Unwanted Virus Notification
      2	Recipient address rejected
      3	RBL bogusmx.rfc-ignorant.org
      3	RBL hongkong.blackholes.us
     11	strict 7-bit headers
     13	RBL bhnc.njabl.org
     27	RBL taiwan.blackholes.us
     37	RBL brazil.blackholes.us
     89	RBL dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net
    197	Local address forgery
    220	RBL list.dsbl.org
    232	Relay access denied
    278	RBL cn-kr.blackholes.us
    288	Greylisted delivery attempt
    299	RBL combined.njabl.org
    384	Local access rule: Helo command rejected
    443	header checks (Spam)
    518	body checks (Spam)
    650	RBL sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org
   1091	Dynamic IP Trespass
   1246	Sender Domain Not Found
   2148	Local access rule: Client host rejected
   5262	Recipient Domain Not Found
   6816	Local access rule: Sender address rejected
   7789	User unknown
  10243	Bad HELO
  10935	Need FQDN address

  49225	TOTAL


Spamassassin stats:
     94	spam
    873	clean
    967	TOTAL

Percentages:
spam ratio      (49319/50192) 98.26%
tagged messages (94/967) 9.72%
rejected spam   (49225/49319) 99.81%

pps: my mail log file is rotated weekly at about 7am on a sunday.  so far
today, 2119 spams have been rejected.  that's 264 per hour.



-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>           (part time cyborg)