"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 4 Nov 2005 20:30:53 -0600, Morris Dovey wrote:

If the "Mike O" who wants to test with real spams will provide
confirmation and either an e-mail address or an FTP destination for a
zip file, I can provide about 10K that I've saved up...

Well, all fun aside, training a spam detection system only goes so far
with someone else's spam. You really have to take the initial hit with
your particular variety of spam to get the filters trained well. Better
than starting raw _probably_, but until you teach it with your own crop,
it won't be as effective as it can be.

Better, and less effort, to just let it chew through and let it learn
the real stuff for a week or three.


I know this isn't going to give me a complete filtering setup, I'm mainly
just trying to get a feel for the system and how it works and the different
settings before we go "live". I've already informed management (several
times, in big bold letters) that:
1) No filter will eliminate spam completely
2) The tuning will be an ongoing process.

Hopefully when we go live with this and stuff still shows up in someone's
inbox, they won't blame me and/or the software (they probably will anyway)

So far, in the last week or so, my test account has:

- Won three European lotteries (all I need to do is give them my bank info
for the prize.. Three very different contests, but the verification form
has the same email address in all three..
- Been informed that my PayPal/Bank/Credit card account needs verified.
- Received a few patches from Microsoft.
- Found out where I can by $1000 worth of software for $5
- Offered discounted Viagra, Cialis, etc.

I know it's just a test, but actually those types of email are what most of
our users are getting, too.

Mike O'Donnell