[THIN] Re: OT: spam gifs

The giff (or other image) is inbedded within the e-mail (as displayed to the 
user) with html code.  If a recipeint clicks anyware on the image it usually 
trys to open a url (sometimes it uses a Mail to: link instead).  While no 
system can catch EVERY spam we are finding the software we are using IS 
catching better than 95% of spam with VERY few false positives.  In our case 
simply stripping the image from inbound messages is NOT an option - firstly 
because we do receive a significant number image files as part of the work we 
do and secondly our staff would moan like heck if they still got hundreds of 
"blank" spam mail.  BTW - what happens if a user clicks on the "white space"  
of one of the messages you have stripped the giff out of - does it still try yo 
open the url?
 
-Ec

-----Original Message-----
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of 
Matthew Shrewsbury
Sent: 26 April 2006 8:47 AM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: OT: spam gifs



If the gif image is opening from a url then your said system works fine. We are 
talking when gif image is embedded in the email. Although lists do work well 
spammers use throw away domains that last in some cases as little as 24 hours 
and the lists can't keep up with that.

 

Matthew Shrewsbury, MCSE+Internet MCSE 2000 CCA Server+

Network Manager

-----Original Message-----
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Euan Cooper
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 4:35 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: OT: spam gifs

 

Our anti spam filter catches most of these type off spam - they all use html to 
display the giff (or tiff of jpg) and an <a href> to point ot a web site - by 
comparing the url with lists of known SPAM urls we get a very high "hit rate" 
on this type of spam.   The vendor maintains the list of known spam urls, so as 
new ones are found our system detects them.

 

In our case we could not simpy block image files as we have legitimate business 
needs to allow images in e-mails

 

-Ec

-----Original Message-----
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of 
Matthew Shrewsbury
Sent: 25 April 2006 4:26 AM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: OT: spam gifs

I banned *.gif files last year and have not regretted it. I use a open relay 
filter that just removes the *.gif files from the email. 

 

Matthew Shrewsbury, MCSE+Internet MCSE 2000 CCA Server+

Network Manager

-----Original Message-----
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Roger Riggins
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 11:53 AM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] OT: spam gifs

 

We've recently started receiving some spam that is simply a .gif that contains 
the text so the spam filters aren't able to check content. It appears that the 
only way to block this is to ban messages that contain .gifs. Is it going to 
eventually come to that? Are any of you running into the same dilemma?

 

Thanks,

Roger Riggins   
Network Administrator 
Lutheran Services in Iowa 
w: 319.859.3543 
c: 319.290.5687 
http://www.lsiowa.org 

 

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