Apr 28, '09 07:30:01AM • Contributed by: Garylb
However, spammers have recently started using several procedures to avoid being filtered, such as sending images (JPEGs or GIFs) as pictures with a text message. These are not recognized as text, and as a result, are not filtered.
Another method spammers use is both an image and different ancillary text content, thus avoiding any message consistency, which also negates the ability to filter spams. When you are faced with this, there can still be a work-around to filter out these nefarious messages.
First collect two or three of the same type of messages. then investigate the long headers of each email (View » Message » Long Header, or Shift-Command-H). Then try to find something fairly obscure yet unique that is consistent from one spam message to another, such as the x-Mimeole value. If all the spam messages have the same value, such as Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6001.18, copy it.
Now go to the Rules tab in Preferences and click on the first drop-down menu in the conditions section. Scroll to the bottom of the drop-down and choose Edit Header List. Here you can add x-Mimeole to your conditions list. Now you are ready to paste the unique Long Header value. Once this is part of your conditions list, you can now filter the long header criteria and eliminate these vexing spams. As an example, your new Rule could read:
If any of the following conditions are met:
x-Mimeole contains Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6001.18
perform the following actions:
Move Message to mailbox Junk.
Creating this Rule has solved a very aggravating problem, and thus far, has worked like a charm!
[robg adds: Similarly, you might wish to add rules to trap HTML messages from unknown senders and messages encoded in Chinese. Note that with any of these techniques, you run the risk of trapping legitimate spam (moreso with the last one). So if you implement broadly-seeping rules like these, make sure you keep your eye on your Junk folder for any legitimate messages that were trapped by your filter(s).]
