Are there plans to make the em client better when it comes to detecting spam?
I’ve seen a few trends now, and I can’t be the only one… first it was using these new, weird top level domains, and the latest is using some which looks English, and then appending jibberish to the end…
In both of these cases, you have to manually mark each mail, and then take your time to figure out a pattern which is very tedious. Should em client not be better at doing that? ML and AI are used for really problematic things these days, but here is an area where I suspect they would do quite well (until the spammers start using it too… and right now, I almost think that they will be more nimble and get there faster).
I would suggest to try setting up “a block on the domain” either in eM Client rule or on your Server mail filtering using a wildcard * in the rule. eg: @untdstat*.com & another one @betterbreathing*.com
Spam filtering is the biggest weakness of eMClient.
I have had to run Apple Mail in the background with the SpamSieve plug-in in order to have all my spam properly moved to the junk folder.
As long as eMClient remains a closed platform to plug-ins that could easily improve spam filtering, this is going to remain an issue. And it’s a shame, because this is mostly a first-rate email platform that could excel with the ability to properly filter spam.
eM Client doesn’t have spam filtering. That is left to your email provider. In modern times where users access the same account from multiple devices and apps, it is not efficient to have separate spam detection on each device and app. Rather, it can be done at the source, and have the same clean Inbox on all devices and apps when and if they connect to that account.
And some providers, like Google (you have a Google account I believe) have artificial neural networks costing millions to detect and manage spam. A desktop app just can’t compete with that.
I understand this answer, but… outlook.com is a big disaster the last few month with spam. The rules there hardly work, but… the rules in EmClient hardly work either. Everyday I get a lot of email from outlook.com, and I can’t set a rule that directly/permanently removes all '[email protected]" e-mail that come in via Outlook.com I tried absolutely everything, it frustrates a lot.
Would it be possible to consider allowing a plug-in to be installed?
I know, I know I know that the developer(s) of eMClient are adamant in their position that spam blocking should be done from the email provider’s side. However, there are many of us that don’t have blocking services available to us from our Internet provider and/or email services like iCloud. Any services that are available are very expensive.
However, what we do have is the ability to install a low-cost plug-in that is highly effective if the email client were to allow it.
Is it too much to ask to consider allowing for a spam plug-in for future revisions of eMClient? This is kind of a biggie for some of us.
nobody@ is not the email address the message was sent from. We just display that when we can’t display the actual address because there is something wrong with its format. That Rule won’t work.
Best is to open webmail and mark this message as spam there, or find some other unique text to use in the Rule.
Would it be possible to add a column that we could show the email address in the message listing pane? I have it enabled on the reading pane, but I think it would be easy to manage on client end if we could show that and sort/group by actual email, not just display name.
I must say that I do agree with you… it is a big let-down. I have been using block email address and block domain, but the spam still comes in 10/12 times a day.
eM Client doesn’t have a spam detection ability. We leave that up to your email provider, so if they are not filtering your messages correctly that would be the place to start.
All eM Client has are Rules, including the Blacklist, that can move new messages from your Inbox to the Junk folder based on very specific information like the sender’s address or domain. If you setup a Rule, or add the sender’s address to the Blacklist, it will work only as long as they use that same address. But spammers avoid using the same address repeatedly because they are easily blocked that way. A Rule is not an effective way to manage spam. Better is to mark the message as spam in webmail for your email provider, and their server will learn from that, hopefully moving similar messages to spam in future.
I’m newly using eMClient and I love everything so far. But it could be better if I could get SpamSieve in place (as discussed in this thread). I am not willing to move all my accounts to google or microsoft - I run my own mailserver for myself and clients - and although I have good server-side spam filtering, SpamSieve still catches spams on the client machine that the server has missed. It’s invaluable. Allowing SpamSIeve as a plug-in would be a GREAT improvement. Is the thinking on this still mired in server-side solutions?
But if it were this easy then why do so many spam fitering applications exist, with folks gladly paying for them.
Many years ago I had a spam solution that used Bayesian analysis and learning to identify spam. It was a local server process that sat between the email client and the server. You’d configure the spam software with your server details, and your email client connected to the local server.
If anyone is aware of such a spam solution available today that would work with emC please let me know.
The party line of “spam filtering should be on the server” doesn’t work when your email provider stinks and you can’t change email providers (at least in the near term).
Again, sorry this is the wrong way!
I don’t share this view, Apple also has a good spam detection system in Mail.app. Mozilla Thunderbird does too. Postbox also had spam detection.
There are countless smaller mail providers that do not filter exactly for spam, but at most set a flag in the header. These flags vary greatly depending on the mail server and spam filter.
I agree with this view, spam filtering should be server side and not a required client based feature. This is due to the exact reason he brought up where if you have multiple devices, the filtering only happens if you have the client running with the spam filtering enabled. If it is not running then spam filtering will not take place on the other devices. Additionally, server side filtering has the ability to be trained more efficiently due to being able to have many users (some within the same domain) doing the training. So it is a much better function to be handled on the server side. If your email provider does not have spam filtering at the server side, then I suggest looking into using another email provider that does.
I want to step in here and offer my thoughts as this has been a personal peeve of mine.
eM Client has made impressive gains over the last year in adding features. I praised them in another thread.
However, the one thing that has baffled me is how adamant they are in not wanting to allow spam filter plug-ins.
Apple Mail and PostBox allow the SpamSieve plugin. It has proven to be an essential deterrent for spam catching and removal. Works wonderfully.
I have to run Apple Mail with SpamSieve silently in the background on one of my Mac machines, I keep constantly running just to remove spam from eM Client. Whatever spam gets flagged on my Apple Mail is automatically detected on eM Client.
But I shouldn’t have to do that.
I’ve had the pleasure of conversing with the author of SpamSieve over the years. He’s an excellent individual who is open to collaborating with any email client available. For the life of me, I can’t comprehend why eM Client has to be a closed platform to the extent that it prevents software from a reputable developer from being used as a plug-in.
I wish the developers could be convinced to change their minds on this issue – especially since bringing users over from PostBox which allowed their users to use the plug-in
I could imagine the case being that plug-ins can effect the stability and security of the software. In many cases I would prefer the important functionality be built in for security and the continued support which seems to get lost with some plug-ins over time. Of course if this is something enough users want it can be voted on at SeekPlan: Support Plug-In Spam Filter | Mail | eM Client
What Apple Mail, PostBox, Thunderbird have build in that’s quite enough for me!
The eM Client spam filter was active after the import from Postbox. The result was that many mails were moved to the spam folder - far too many false positives.
If it’s an overall security issue, I agree with you that’s a primary concern. Apple Mail and PostBox didn’t seem to have concerns over allowing a spam plug-in.
The responses I have read to date from the eM Client team don’t emphasize security, but rather their belief that spam cleanup should be done on the server side.
For those of us with iCloud accounts, there is no spam cleanup and if there is, it’s pretty bad because when I am not running SpamSieve I am inundated with spam. The great thing about SpamSieve is that you can train it by flagging good and bad mail and after awhile, it just does its thing. It’s one of the most popular spam filters out there and it’s very inexpensive to purchase.
It would be nice for eM Client to compromise. They are not forcing plug-ins on their users. They would only be providing the ability for someone to use it.
@NJRonbo I am surprised to hear iCloud email doesn’t have spam filtering, that is basically a required feature now in days when it comes to email hosting. Personally I wouldn’t use Apple in the first place for email hosting, since that is far from their expertise. Email hosting uses one of the few open standard protocols (SMTP) left, with web browsing (HTTP) being the other, so there are so many other choices when it comes to email hosting. I just don’t understand why more users that are unhappy with their email hosting services don’t move to one they like and has the features they need, instead of pushing for the their current email hosting inadequacies to be handled at the email client.
When it comes to Apple Mail, I thought I was reading online that Apple was stopping support for Mail plugins for exactly the reason I brought up:
I agree with the point made in that discussion that says “I find this odd as for most people, security when it comes to email is a high priority. Email after all is usually the primary method of logging into most websites.”
Heck even browsers are in a fight now over Google doing away with manifest v2 support for plug-ins in browsers. So there is a lot involved that needs to be considered.
