SpamBayes just a spam Blocker!

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Written by fayce

SpamBayes will attempt to classify incoming e-mail messages as 'spam', 'ham' (good, non-spam e-mail) or 'unsure'. This means you can have spam or unsure messages automatically filed away in a different mail folder, where it won't interrupt your e-mail reading. First SpamBayes must be trained by each user to identify spam and ham.

Essentially, you show SpamBayes a solid assistance of e-mail that you highly appreciate (ham) and a pile you don't like (spam). SpamBayes will then analyze the piles for evidences as to what makes the spam and ham different. For example; distinct words, differences in the mailer headers and content style. The system then uses these clues to examine new messages.

For instance, the word "Nigeria" appear often in spam, so you could use a spam filter which successfully recognises anything with that word in it as spam. But what if your business involves writing a guidebook on Nigerian Wildlife Conservation? Clearly a more flexible approach is necessary. Additionally spammers will adapt their content over time and will no longer use the word "Nigeria" (or the words "Lose Weight Fast", or any number of other common lines). Ideally the software will be able to adapt as the spam changes.

So, that is what SpamBayes does. It compares the spam and the ham and calculates probabilities. For instance, for me, the word "weight" almost never occurs in legitimate e-mail, but it occurs all the term in 'lose weight fast' spam. SpamBayes can then look at incoming e-mail, extract the most significant clues and combine the probabilities to produce an overall rating of "spamminess". It flags the messages so that your illustrative prospectus can handle the different message types. You might set it up so that ham goes straight through untouched, spam goes to a folder that you ignore (or delete without checking) and the unsure messages go to another folder which you can review for errors.

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