Ask HN: Are junk email filters getting worse?

Posted by mdni007 on Monday May 08, 2023 @02:54PM
from the ask-hn dept.

For the past 2 years I've watched my outlook email inbox devolve into a cesspool of junk and phishing emails. I need to go through about a hundred junk emails daily to find just a handful of actual legitimate emails. I noticed recently that my gmail inbox has also started to spiral out of control for the past few months. I feel like it was never THIS bad before. With all this growth of AI and LLMs I would think that seeing emails in my inbox promoting male enhancement drugs promising 4 more inches would be a thing of the past. If that wasn't bad enough these emails are often flagged as important (in the case of outlook).

( 9 comments | 2 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Are junk email filters getting worse? by DamonHD on Monday May 08, 2023 @03:18PM (#35865859)

Last time I looked the levels of SPAM attempts on me has dropped from ~10k to ~4k attempts per day (over the last few years), so I don't think that things are getting worse in general for everyone.

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Re:Ask HN: Are junk email filters getting worse? by ftxbro on Monday May 08, 2023 @02:59PM (#35865661)

> With all this growth of AI and LLMs I would think that seeing [spam] would be a thing of the past

Wouldn't you guess the opposite, that the spammers are using the AI and LLMs to be more effective at their spams?

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Re:Ask HN: Are junk email filters getting worse? by wizofaus on Monday May 08, 2023 @03:50PM (#35866221)

Except they're not - the spam/ phishing emails are almost invariably obviously not genuine even at a casual glance. Maybe 1 in 50 has me partially convinced it might be genuine and requiring me to double check the addresses etc. I'm actually more concerned about the (very real) reverse problem of genuine emails winding up in my junk folder.

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Re:Ask HN: Are junk email filters getting worse? by taf2 on Tuesday May 09, 2023 @07:55AM (#35872970)

I suspect this will change dramatically over the next year or two

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Re:Ask HN: Are junk email filters getting worse? by victorbjorklund on Monday May 08, 2023 @03:42PM (#35866120)

Dont think it is the filters that are getting worse. It is the spam that is getting better at avoiding the filters.

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Re:Ask HN: Are junk email filters getting worse? by novoshield on Tuesday May 09, 2023 @01:32PM (#35877682)

oops. sorry. uv already sed that.

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Re:Ask HN: Are junk email filters getting worse? by helph67 on Monday May 08, 2023 @06:47PM (#35867949)

Close your gmail account and only use search engines that respect your privacy. E.G. DuckDuckGo. You might also investigate browser extensions uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger.

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Re:Ask HN: Are junk email filters getting worse? by novoshield on Tuesday May 09, 2023 @01:32PM (#35877676)

no - junk mail is getting harder to discern and philter (sic)

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Re:Ask HN: Are junk email filters getting worse? by nickfromseattle on Tuesday May 09, 2023 @11:00PM (#35883157)

I am receiving an increased amount of spam hitting my inbox (O365).

It appears to be other mail servers that were hijacked sending me txt files.

Sometimes 5+ per day.

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