Windows

Setting Up Spam Filtration Using Gmail Accounts

Posted by on Dec 13, 2006 | 8 Comments

First of all, you need to have a Google account. That allows you to subscribe to their free Gmail service. You can open a free account here.

Let me say up front that if you have privacy issues regarding the Internet, this isn’t for you. Since I don’t believe I have any privacy on the Internet anyway, I simply don’t worry about it. I use Gmail for all my mail, as does my wife. If I have something questionable to send over the Web, I’m going to encrypt it anyway, so I don’t care if my stuff is stored on Google’s servers or not. It’s probably safer there than on my computer at home. If, however, you still have illusions about such things, read no farther. Just go back to your ivory tower and wait for the bogeyman to come out of the closet and confiscate your files.

Back to the subject…

Open two Gmail accounts. Name one of them something appropriate, like billsjunkmail@gmail.com. Name the other one something elegant, as you would any other email account.

Now, here’s the deal. You use the junk account for everything except personal correspondence with people you trust. It’s the one you give to the porn sites, the cable service, all your online subscriptions, and so forth. You set (in the “Settings” window, natch,) that account to forward stuff to the personal account.

On the personal account (again from the Settings window), you set things so that any mail coming from the junk account that you choose to answer will automatically use the address of that account. I’m not going to tell you how to do that. If you can’t figure it out for yourself, this is all too complicated for you, anyway.

Here’s what will happen. All the garbage mail will go to the junk account, because you don’t give the personal address to anyone online. Anything that is obviously spam will be filtered automatically. Gmail’s spam filters are extremely accurate, plus you can train them for greater accuracy. Anything that it doesn’t recognize as spam will come to the other account. If something you don’t want gets through, you simply tell the filters of the personal account that it’s a baddie, and they’ll take care of it from then on.

By doing it this way, you’ll simply not see much in the way of spam. Some will, inevitably, get through. Spammers are getting better and better at circumventing filters, even Bayesian filters as good as Google’s. I actually do get a couple of dozen a day – but they’re coming from about half a dozen other accounts, whose filters catch as many as fifty or a hundred a day! If you’re careful, and don’t have the insane volume of mail that I do, you may see two or three occasionally. (Some of my accounts run as high as two to three thousand spam messages a month. Gmail automatically cleans them out of the folder after 30 days.)

I used to visit the junk accounts and look through the spam folders because I was afraid I’d lose something important. After perusing several hundred pieces without finding anything but garbage, I stopped bothering. In a year and a half of using this system, I’m not aware of having lost anything.

You can also configure Gmail so that it will forward to other accounts outside Google’s domain, and Gmail accounts can be POP-checked as well. If you’re having trouble with spam, this is a quick, free, effective solution for most of it.

[tags]Gmail, spam, spam filters, Bill Webb, Bill’s Web, encryption[/tags]

  • Allan Erdman

    This doesn’t make any sense at all and the net effect is only to increase internet congestion. Consider: The throughput of a single filtered and tuned Google account = everything Google doesn’t discard as spam. Same as the throughput of a second junk account forwarded to the primary account. Divvy it up as you will … the same mail will be discarded and the same mail will ultimately get through.

  • Bill Webb

    A couple of additions to the above:

    “but they’re coming from about half a dozen other accounts, whose filters catch as many as fifty or a hundred a day!” should read “a day, each!”

    Also, if you don’t have a cell phone, anyone with a Gmail account can send you an invitation. As a last resort (please), send a request to “zenwiz@gmail.com” and I’ll send you one.

    BW

  • Bill Webb

    Well, Allan, I guess I have to thank you for pointing out that it doesn’t make sense. I’ve been doing it for well over a year, and I always thought it did, because it seems to work just fine.

    Thank goodness you brought it to my attention. I’ll dismantle the system now, since clearly I was mistaken and it must not work at all.

    Thanks for writing. You’ve saved me tons of embarrassment, and I’m sure the other folks who do it that way and are stupid enough to think it works will thank you for enlightening them, as well.

    BW

  • Bill Webb

    OK, that felt good, but it wasn’t very responsive.

    There are two factors. One is “out of sight, out of mind.” You simply don’t know the stuff is in the junk account. For me, that’s a plus. I’m never annoyed by it.

    The other thing is simple practicality. When the volume slipping through from the junk account becomes too great, as it probably will at some point (the skills of the spammers increasing as they are), you simply close that account and open another one.

    The whole point is to never give your “real” address to anyone but family and friends.

  • http://reinke.cc reinkefj

    I use a slightly different concept. I use TWO gmail accounts to protect an ISP account.

    I use one normally named gmail account that forwards to a “hidden” one (i.e., hidden from the spammers, that try every possible combinations, by using an 18 random character string). The hidden one forwards to the ISP. Filters applied on hidden can nuke unwanted traffic.

    I am experimenting with the plus sign feature to uniquely authenticate email. I give each use of the external gmail id a unique random string that I assign to each unique use. I code a filter that allows them to forward thru.

    Google’s gmail presents a lot of opportunity to foil the spamers.

  • http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com/ClifsCurrentNewsletter Clif

    Hi Bill,

    I use the same solution and came across it the same way you did. It works, that’s what I care about. Taking out new email addresses is far easier than trying to salvage the account your friends and family email you at. Ask my wife (LOL). She gets so much email in her favorite email account that nobody can depend on her answering it. Gotta love’er … she still tries.

    Best wishes and Merry Whatever!

    Clif
    htttp://freewarewiki.com

  • feetome

    You can create multiple address within your Gmail account. Then label them in your inbox. Here’s more, http://www.techiecorner.com/22/create-gmail-with-plus-addressing-to-prevent-spam/

  • kit lyovsoorz

    I have a traditional email address at work and ran the following test: I set up two gmail accounts as suggested by bill and set up my work email to redirect all email to bill’s gmail system. I set up a third gmail account and had all work email sent directly to it. after a few days of comparing the single gmail setup to the dual (i.e., bills system) setup I noticed the inbox of each was identical. But, the spam box for bills system was basically empty–this is the only difference. if bill thinks that’s cool, good for him. personaly, it’s a pain for me to have multiple emails to save me the trouble of clicking on “delete spam” and i will continue to keep things straight with filters and software and temporary email accounts… PS i’ve learned a long toem ago that if someone (like bill) has a system they like, then cheer ‘em on–it is something i would never suggest, but hey, Bill likes it and he’s taken the time to share it with others. who knows, someone else may think it’s clever and cool too–Go Bill!