Spam-checker or Spell-checker
Note: nothing I say here is new, it’s just an annoying thing that started to bug me again recently.
Although spam checking and spell checking should be different enough they are much closer for most of spam emails, comments and other types of communication.
The story goes like this:
Spammers want to sell you crap like viagra, replica watches, whatever (just some from my recent spams).
But of course the “Good Guys” know this so words like “viagra”, “replica” are banned or give a very high spam score.
Back come the spammers and change the offending words to other which look similar but aren’t the same so spam rules won’t catch them. As examples: “v1agra”, “repl1ca”, etc. (and here I thought leet speak was dead 
)
And the game between spammers and spam filters continues on and on. Different words, different misspellings. Nobody actually wins, the game just continues.
Seems to me like the generic solution to filter out some spam has become to run it through a spell checker. Any misspelled word or word which doesn’t exist in any dictionary is usually a good indicator of either spam or just very stupid people writing you mail/comments. Should there be a different treatment? My initial opinion is that it shouldn’t matter.
If someone writes you a mail which you have to waste a lot of time to understand because of misspellings that is no better than generic automated spam.
Also I recommend Paul Graham’s A Plan for Spam as a must-read about handling spam.
Mai e spam-ul o problema?
Putina grija pe unde-mi arunc adresa de mail si filtrul de la gmail sunt suficiente sa am doar 1-2 mesaje de spam pe luna.
Ups… romanian comment
Nu e legat direct de post, dar spam-ul este o problema majora.
Chiar atunci cand nu consuma timpul oamenilor care primesc mail-uri tot se consuma trafic, procesor, alte resurse consumate de filtrele de spam si timpul oamenilor care update-uie regulile din filtrele de spam