[MlMt] dreamhost spam

[Tracy Valleau]

I've been on Dreamhost for well over a decade.

My advice: turn off their filtering and let SpamSieve do it.

Here's a good starting point for everything you want to know about DH 
filtering:

https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/215686487-How-do-I-configure-my-Anti-spam-settings-

hth

Tracy

On 21 Sep 2018, at 9:00, mailmate-request at lists.freron.com wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. More MailMate woes (Randall Meadows)
>    2. Re: How is spam filteirng working with detection is
>       disabled?! (Benny Kjær Nielsen)
>    3. Re: Cannot manually Apply Rules (Benny Kjær Nielsen)
>    4. Re: More MailMate woes (Benny Kjær Nielsen)
>    5. Re: More MailMate woes (Randall Meadows)
>    6. Re: More MailMate woes (Benny Kjær Nielsen)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2018 14:36:54 -0600
> From: "Randall Meadows" <randy.meadows at not-pc.com>
> To: "MailMate Users" <mailmate at lists.freron.com>
> Subject: [MlMt] More MailMate woes
> Message-ID: <1EA135CD-3F47-41D0-B34B-CC2C86E7E190 at not-pc.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; markup=markdown
>
> After the SpamSieve drone fiasco I mentioned yesterday, I'm not so 
> sure
> I am as much at fault as I thought; I'm happy to be proven wrong, if I
> can figure out what's going on.
>
> Said SpamSieve drone was a completely new installation, so I don't 
> think
> it has anything to do with "leftover" data.  But what was happening 
> was,
> just about all messages were ending up in my Spam mailbox, even 
> messages
> I get regularly from senders that I've been getting for years with no
> problem.
>
> I investigated further today, and every messages in the Spam mailbox 
> had
> these headers (inserted by DreamHost's anti-spam service, which I am
> unable to disable):
>
> X-VR-STATUS:
> X-VR-SCORE:
> X-VR-SPAMCAUSE:
>
> The values varied, of course, but the one constant was, every message
> that had a non-zero X-VR-SCORE (which was most of them, like 90+%) was
> moved to the spam mailbox.  Now, after disabling the drone, I'm 
> getting
> all the messages filtered (locally) into the correct mailboxes, but
> still all those non-zero scored messages have the yellow header with
> [Mark as Not Junk] [ Load Once] [ Move to Junk]
> buttons.
>
> I can only assume that MailMate is heeding these X-VR-* headers and
> considering every message with a non-zero score as "spammy", yielding
> the yellow banner and buttons.  Is this correct?
>
> If so...has there been a recent change in MM that might affect this?  
> (I
> can't recall when I last updated, but this issue "coincidentally"
> started after my aforementioned SpamSieve drone problem, but since 
> I've
> now eliminated SpamSieve from the equation, now I I'm sure what to
> think.
>
> I'm about to completely nuke my MM installation and start from 
> scratch,
> just in case I've mucked up something unbeknownst to me, so if anyone
> has ideas that can save me from that pain, I'd appreciate it!
>
>
> randy
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2018 10:13:30 +0200
> From: "Benny Kjær Nielsen" <mailinglist at freron.com>
> To: "MailMate Users" <mailmate at lists.freron.com>
> Subject: Re: [MlMt] How is spam filteirng working with detection is
> 	disabled?!
> Message-ID: <6C7765AC-0806-427D-A0D0-BD8B789E74B2 at freron.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
>
> On 20 Sep 2018, at 22:23, Randall Meadows wrote:
>
>> On 20 Sep 2018, at 14:20, Randall Meadows wrote:
>>
>>> On 20 Sep 2018, at 3:27, Benny Kjær Nielsen wrote:
>>>> Within MailMate the only two ways are the SpamSieve-integration or
>>>> mailbox rules. If you don't use SpamSieve then try sending me the
>>>> following file (off list):
>>>>
>>>> 	/Users/<username>/Library/Application
>>>> Support/MailMate/Mailboxes.plist
>>>
>>> Here ya go.
>
> You have a lot of rules in different mailboxes, but I don't see 
> anything
> moving emails to mailboxes named something like spam or junk.
>
>> Well, crap...that's what I get for multi-tasking and not paying
>> attention.  Hope there's no sensitive data in there... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
>
> I don't think anyone would care much about the data in the file. The
> biggest problem is that some email addresses might be scraped by some
> spam-address-collecting robot, but I suspect they would skip `.plist`
> files.
>
> -- 
> Benny
> https://freron.com/become_a_mailmate_patron/
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2018 10:15:32 +0200
> From: "Benny Kjær Nielsen" <mailinglist at freron.com>
> To: "MailMate Users" <mailmate at lists.freron.com>
> Subject: Re: [MlMt] Cannot manually Apply Rules
> Message-ID: <230D7415-1C6B-40C8-9520-FD8C65B6588D at freron.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
>
> On 20 Sep 2018, at 22:24, Randall Meadows wrote:
>
>> On 20 Sep 2018, at 3:24, Benny Kjær Nielsen wrote:
>>
>>>> It actually appears that the messages in question are *duplicated*
>>>> in the INBOX and their "real" mailbox (BTW, this is the Smart
>>>> "Unread" mailbox I'm talking about here).
>>>
>>> That does look very strange. Does it persist if you relaunch
>>> MailMate?
>>>
>>> If it doesn't, can you reproduce the problem by, e.g., moving a
>>> single message back into your Inbox?
>>
>> A restart didn't help; it appeared the only thing that helped was
>> deleting the duplicate messages.
>
> Ok, let me know if you are able to reproduce the generation of new
> duplicates. (I checked your rules and you don't have any “Copy
> Message” actions.)
>
> -- 
> Benny
> https://freron.com/become_a_mailmate_patron/
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2018 10:31:59 +0200
> From: "Benny Kjær Nielsen" <mailinglist at freron.com>
> To: "MailMate Users" <mailmate at lists.freron.com>
> Subject: Re: [MlMt] More MailMate woes
> Message-ID: <70BB7EC3-5A25-4C79-9CC2-430C3CF098C8 at freron.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
>
> On 20 Sep 2018, at 22:36, Randall Meadows wrote:
>
>> Said SpamSieve drone was a completely new installation, so I don't
>> think it has anything to do with "leftover" data.  But what was
>> happening was, just about all messages were ending up in my Spam
>> mailbox, even messages I get regularly from senders that I've been
>> getting for years with no problem.
>>
>> I investigated further today, and every messages in the Spam mailbox
>> had these headers (inserted by DreamHost's anti-spam service, which I
>> am unable to disable):
>
> It sounds like the most likely explanation for emails being moved to
> spam is DreamHost:
> https://discussion.dreamhost.com/t/how-do-i-disable-the-anti-spam-filter/63746/32
>
>> X-VR-STATUS:
>> X-VR-SCORE:
>> X-VR-SPAMCAUSE:
>
> MailMate does not use these headers for anything. But you could use 
> them
> in rules if you like, e.g., to do something like this:
>
> 	Condition: X-VR-Status is “Whitelisted”
> 	Action: Set Keyword “Not Junk”
>
> See further below for why that might be useful. For the record, I have
> no idea how to get something on the whitelist on DreamHost.
>
> The headers above are described by DreamHost
> [here](https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/215686647-Technical-details-on-how-Anti-spam-filters-work).
>
>> The values varied, of course, but the one constant was, every message
>> that had a non-zero X-VR-SCORE (which was most of them, like 90+%) 
>> was
>> moved to the spam mailbox.  Now, after disabling the drone, I'm
>> getting all the messages filtered (locally) into the correct
>> mailboxes, but still all those non-zero scored messages have the
>> yellow header with
>> [Mark as Not Junk] [ Load Once] [ Move to Junk]
>> buttons.
>>
>> I can only assume that MailMate is heeding these X-VR-* headers and
>> considering every message with a non-zero score as "spammy", yielding
>> the yellow banner and buttons.  Is this correct?
>
> No, MailMate isn't really telling you that it thinks the email is 
> junk.
> It is telling you that the email contains external references (most
> likely to images). This is the image blocking feature configured in 
> the
> Security preferences pane. This is about email tracking which is not
> only done by spammers. Nevertheless, a feature of this system is that
> MailMate can be told to fetch images if the email has been explicitly
> marked as “Not Junk”. In other words, an email has 3 junk-related
> states: Unknown, Junk, Not Junk.
>
>> If so...has there been a recent change in MM that might affect this?
>
> No, I don't think so.
>
>> (I can't recall when I last updated, but this issue "coincidentally"
>> started after my aforementioned SpamSieve drone problem, but since
>> I've now eliminated SpamSieve from the equation, now I I'm sure what
>> to think.
>>
>> I'm about to completely nuke my MM installation and start from
>> scratch, just in case I've mucked up something unbeknownst to me, so
>> if anyone has ideas that can save me from that pain, I'd appreciate
>> it!
>
> Don't do that. As far as I can tell the main problem is DreamHost
> spam-filtering and maybe your image blocking settings in the Security
> preferences pane (maybe you had this disabled in the past).
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> -- 
> Benny
> https://freron.com/become_a_mailmate_patron/
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2018 07:40:42 -0600
> From: "Randall Meadows" <randy.meadows at not-pc.com>
> To: "MailMate Users" <mailmate at lists.freron.com>
> Subject: Re: [MlMt] More MailMate woes
> Message-ID: <F245DB33-8103-404B-8A8D-E569CBFCEAFA at not-pc.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
>
> On 21 Sep 2018, at 2:31, Benny Kjær Nielsen wrote:
>
>> On 20 Sep 2018, at 22:36, Randall Meadows wrote:
>>
>>> The values varied, of course, but the one constant was, every 
>>> message
>>> that had a non-zero X-VR-SCORE (which was most of them, like 90+%)
>>> was moved to the spam mailbox.  Now, after disabling the drone, I'm
>>> getting all the messages filtered (locally) into the correct
>>> mailboxes, but still all those non-zero scored messages have the
>>> yellow header with
>>> [Mark as Not Junk] [ Load Once] [ Move to Junk]
>>> buttons.
>>>
>>> I can only assume that MailMate is heeding these X-VR-* headers and
>>> considering every message with a non-zero score as "spammy", 
>>> yielding
>>> the yellow banner and buttons.  Is this correct?
>>
>> No, MailMate isn't really telling you that it thinks the email is
>> junk. It is telling you that the email contains external references
>> (most likely to images). This is the image blocking feature 
>> configured
>> in the Security preferences pane. This is about email tracking which
>> is not only done by spammers. Nevertheless, a feature of this system
>> is that MailMate can be told to fetch images if the email has been
>> explicitly marked as “Not Junk”. In other words, an email has 3
>> junk-related states: Unknown, Junk, Not Junk.
>>
>>> If so...has there been a recent change in MM that might affect this?
>>
>> No, I don't think so.
>>
>>> (I can't recall when I last updated, but this issue "coincidentally"
>>> started after my aforementioned SpamSieve drone problem, but since
>>> I've now eliminated SpamSieve from the equation, now I I'm sure what
>>> to think.
>>>
>>> I'm about to completely nuke my MM installation and start from
>>> scratch, just in case I've mucked up something unbeknownst to me, so
>>> if anyone has ideas that can save me from that pain, I'd appreciate
>>> it!
>>
>> Don't do that. As far as I can tell the main problem is DreamHost
>> spam-filtering and maybe your image blocking settings in the Security
>> preferences pane (maybe you had this disabled in the past).
>
> OK, I can live with the errant few messages going to my Spam mailbox; 
> I
> can deal with that.  But the yellow banner thing is REALLY annoying 
> me.
> I really don't think I've changed anything in my MM settings recently,
> but regardless, I can't now find a permutation of the settings that 
> gets
> me back to the behavior I had just a few days ago, which was that most
> messages did NOT have this banner, their content was fully loaded and
> displayed.  Now, I have to click on "Mark as Not Junk" for nearly 
> EVERY
> message, including those types of messages and from senders that I've
> been receiving from for YEARS and did not have to do this.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2018 16:06:21 +0200
> From: "Benny Kjær Nielsen" <mailinglist at freron.com>
> To: "MailMate Users" <mailmate at lists.freron.com>
> Subject: Re: [MlMt] More MailMate woes
> Message-ID: <CBD32C81-9769-4849-9AB9-00CF836647A3 at freron.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
>
> On 21 Sep 2018, at 15:40, Randall Meadows wrote:
>
>> OK, I can live with the errant few messages going to my Spam mailbox;
>> I can deal with that.  But the yellow banner thing is REALLY annoying
>> me.  I really don't think I've changed anything in my MM settings
>> recently, but regardless, I can't now find a permutation of the
>> settings that gets me back to the behavior I had just a few days ago,
>> which was that most messages did NOT have this banner, their content
>> was fully loaded and displayed.  Now, I have to click on "Mark as Not
>> Junk" for nearly EVERY message, including those types of messages and
>> from senders that I've been receiving from for YEARS and did not have
>> to do this.
>
> Your SpamSieve drone probably also marked the emails explicitly as
> “Not Junk” and this would trigger MailMate to not show the banner
> (with the default settings). (There's also a SpamSieve setting in
> MailMate to do this for emails below a certain score.)
>
> The simple solution is to disable image blocking in Security 
> preferences
> pane. (It'll still be enabled for emails in the Junk folder.)
>
> (A more advanced solution would require a smart mailbox which could be
> used in the image blocking settings. It could, e.g., include all 
> emails
> which have a From address which is not present in any recipient header
> in your sent messages.)
>
> -- 
> Benny
> https://freron.com/become_a_mailmate_patron/
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: Digest Footer
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> End of mailmate Digest, Vol 90, Issue 21
> ****************************************

Tracy
www.valleau.art