Spam Assassin gives you feedback on what sort of email it’s killing for you. Here’s a sample:

SPAM: -------------------- Start SpamAssassin results ---------------------- SPAM: This mail is probably spam. The original message has been altered SPAM: so you can recognise or block similar unwanted mail in future. SPAM: See http://spamassassin.org/tag/ for more details. SPAM: SPAM: Content analysis details: (25.9 hits, 5 required) SPAM: FROM_NAME_NO_SPACES (-0.1 points) From: no spaces in name SPAM: INVALID_DATE_TZ_ABSURD (4.4 points) Invalid Date: header timezone does not exist) SPAM: SUBJ_HAS_SPACES (4.0 points) Subject contains lots of white space SPAM: SUBJ_HAS_Q_MARK (0.7 points) Subject: contains a question mark SPAM: WORK_AT_HOME (3.2 points) BODY: Information on how to work at home (1) SPAM: REMOVE_SUBJ (3.4 points) BODY: List removal information SPAM: MAILTO_LINK (0.8 points) BODY: Includes a URL link to send an email SPAM: FREQ_SPAM_PHRASE (2.4 points) Contains phrases frequently found in spam SPAM: [score: 29, hits: are you, com with, from home,] SPAM: [list please, looking for, please send, remove the] SPAM: [subject line, the subject, with your, you] SPAM: [like, you need, you want, your name, your] SPAM: [own] SPAM: SPAM_PHRASES_020 (2.1 points) spam-phrase score is over 20 SPAM: DATE_IN_FUTURE_12_24 (3.3 points) Date: is 12 to 24 hours after Received: date SPAM: CTYPE_JUST_HTML (1.7 points) HTML-only mail, with no text version SPAM: SPAM: -------------------- End of SpamAssassin results ---------------------

Fun.

Okay, of the four messages I received today that SA caught, one was from my parents, supposedly because it had "bulk e-mail fingerprints" on it.

More disturbingly, I've had a number of messages come through with headers stripped off of them. Hrm.

Didn't you have a similar problem with your folks interacting with some other sort of spam filtering program? I seem to recall a post like that.

Myself, not one spam has gotten through that should have been caught (it's caught 13 today), and it hasn't snagged anything it shouldn't have. I'm quite pleased.

I had Next Draft come through with the html stripped out, but I noticed at the bottom of the email it said "How do you like the new look?" So I'm wondering if that happened just because the code for the new layout got all screwed up. Dunno.

The thing with my folks may be because they use Calypso; I saw a post in the support forum about that. Now I just have to go in an figure out how to screw around with the config file.

The other problem I see is that it is quick to label legit (solicted) commercial mail, too. Though I probably need to cut back on that anyway ...

I haven't test this myself, but apparently you can "whitelist" certain addresses so SA will leave them alone. This might be handy for mail from the parents, if it works. Here's a link: http://forums.hmdns.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6517