Graphs of spam for This Week

Spam is a real problem for me, I get lots of it. Luckily I have two sets of filters that trap a majority of the spam. I still get about 5-10 spams a day even through both sets of filters.

Spam is the nickname for junk email. It's also called Unsolicitied Bulk Email (UBE) or, less incorrectly, Unsolicitied Commercial Email (UCE). It's that stuff usually from commercial places offering you junk you never want to hear about. The most common stuff I get is offers to commit frauds from Nigeria, Viagra and penis enlargement offers, what are they trying to say?

Of course if you want to send me spam, my spamtrap at abigail@small.dropbear.id.au would love to hear from you! Plenty of spammers use it already! You would not want to miss out on all the fun Mr Spammer would you? Email now, yes right NOW!

What do the states mean?

Each graph has a set of lines, the following lists what sort of lines can appear on the graph and what they mean.

Delivered

The email was not spam, or not considered spam and made it through the filters.

Client

Mail was rejected due to the IP address or hostname of the sending mailserver.

Blocked

Client is listed in a RBL or my own static lists.

Hostname

Hostname was not found for this IP address

Other

Client rejected for some other reason.

Sender

Mail was rejected due to the sender's email address.

Content

Mail was rejected due to something in the email, such as virus known spam phrases.

Recipient

The email was trying to be sent to either a non-existent user or domain. There is also a graph that can show the break-down of these entries:

User

Email rejected because it was trying to be sent to a non-existent user.

Domain

Email was being sent to a domain we don't host here, or they are trying to relay email through the server.