E-Mail and Xfinity Connect Help

[lavi6]

For the past week I have been receiving spam e-mails and I never did before.  Is there anything you can do to stop this?

[madylarian]

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lavi6 wrote:

For the past week I have been receiving spam e-mails and I never did before.  Is there anything you can do to stop this?

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Yes.  Make sure the spam filter is enabled and be sure to report all spam using the SPAM button.

mady

[xofer]

I would venture a guess that Comcast's spam app has quit working once again.  I am getting the same spam in all my mailboxes for over a week now and every day brings more of the same garbage that never used to get through.  This is completely unacceptable Comcast.  There is no excuse for poor service at the outrageous pricing that Comcast charges.  Let's get the spam filter fixed ASAP!

[ComcastGabriel]

lavi6,

Please make sure your Spam filter is on, the Spam folder is enabled, and that you are reporting the emails with the 'This Is Spam' button.  If there are particular things you are concerned with, please send me a private message and we can discuss it further.  Using the 'This Is Spam' button does help us ensure that more spam emails will get caught and taken care of properly for both you and other Comcast customers.

Thank you,

Gabriel

[Yogisd1]

How about if Comcast quits selling my information to marketers. One account I set up specifically to communicate with a few friends. (No registering at websites or anywhere else.) Comcast is the only entity that has this e-mail address besides five of my friends. Then last week I start getting spam from the same people to both of my accounts. Since the same spam from the same people is turning up in both accounts, I have to conclude that Comcast is behind this sudden influx of spam. If you would stop selling my information I wouldn't need a spam filter that doesn't work. E-mail is just like your phone service. Comcast says it gives you the tools to stop spam and unwanted calls but there are always exceptions. If Comcast didn't have a monopoly in my area I wouldn't have anything to do with them. There is one sure fire way to cure this problem. STOP SELLING MY INFORMATION! Comcast is living up to their new motto: "We are Comcast and we don't care, because we don't have to."

[emtobitsch]

I have been experiencing the same thing.  Spam is showing up in my inbox for the past week and a half.  How is Comcast taking care of this, when all my SPAM option does is move it to a folder marked Spam? Please advise. Thank you.

[ComcastJordan]

Yogisd1,

Comcast does not sell customer information.  Spammers are aggressive people with nothing but time on their hands to figure out email addresses.  We will be happy to look into the spam that is hitting your account and see what we can do to block it.

[ComcastJordan]

Emtobitsch,

Clicking the Spam button generates a report to our backend system which then learns from the report and improves overall filtering for all of our customers.  We are looking into the spam that has hit your account to see how we can improve the overall filtering.

[xofer]

I have been getting way more span in the past 3 weeks, than I have since January.  Spam filters are on as always and always have been for years.  I'm getting the same spam-mails to all 5 of my addresses so I know something has happened with comcast's spam filters.  This happens several times a year and comcast always says, mark it as spam.  Well that is all fine and good IF you only use webmail.  However, if you choose to use a mail app on your computer and/or your smart phone, you're SOL.  You notice the employees never give out the email address to forward your spam to as much as they parrot "just hit the spam button."  For me, I'm waiting for FIOS to hit my town which is going to be soon so I can stop being held prisoner by comcast.

[401]

xofer:

> I would venture a guess that Comcast's spam app has quit working once again.

And you would be right about that.

em:

> Spam is showing up in my inbox for the past week and a half.

Exactly.  1) In the _inbox_.  Which means that Comcast guessed wrong.  2) For the last week and a half. 

Pretty good for a while before that.  Terrible for the last week or so.

What changed recently, Comcast?

ComcastJordan:

> Clicking the Spam button generates a report to our backend system which then learns

> from the report and improves overall filtering for all of our customers.

I have two specific questions about this, to clarify.

Two different cases.

1) Spam that is in the Spam folder

That means that Comcast was not sure if it was spam or not, because if Comcast was sure, they would just have deleted it before it got to the customer's email account.  I'm sure that there are millions of these per day.

If the customer puts a check in the box for that email and clicks "delete spam" does Comcast make a note that that email was _really_ spam?

2) Spam that is in the inbox

If the customer puts a check in the box for that email and clicks "spam" does Comcast make a note that that email was really spam?

[madylarian]

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xofer wrote:

I have been getting way more span in the past 3 weeks, than I have since January.  Spam filters are on as always and always have been for years.  I'm getting the same spam-mails to all 5 of my addresses so I know something has happened with comcast's spam filters.  This happens several times a year and comcast always says, mark it as spam.  Well that is all fine and good IF you only use webmail.  However, if you choose to use a mail app on your computer and/or your smart phone, you're SOL.  You notice the employees never give out the email address to forward your spam to as much as they parrot "just hit the spam button."  For me, I'm waiting for FIOS to hit my town which is going to be soon so I can stop being held prisoner by comcast.

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If there was a universally perfect spam filter there would be no spam.  There is no such thing and blocking spam is an ongoing endeavor; the spammer are working just as hard to get around the filters as the admins are at blocking the spam.  That is why, when a new batch of spam gets through, you have to "teach" the filters by reporting the spam.  If you are using a mail client forward the spam message as an attachment to missed-spam@comcast.net.

mady

[madylarian]

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401 wrote:

I have two specific questions about this, to clarify.

Two different cases.

1) Spam that is in the Spam folder

That means that Comcast was not sure if it was spam or not, because if Comcast was sure, they would just have deleted it before it got to the customer's email account.  I'm sure that there are millions of these per day.

If the customer puts a check in the box for that email and clicks "delete spam" does Comcast make a note that that email was _really_ spam?

2) Spam that is in the inbox

If the customer puts a check in the box for that email and clicks "spam" does Comcast make a note that that email was really spam?

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1)  No, that means that Comcast has determined that it's spam and you determined that spam should be put in the Spam folder.  If you don't want it saved in that folder then uncheck that option in Customer Central.  Since no filter is perfect and there can be false positives most people choose to have it saved until they can make sure that nothing legitimate has ended up there.  Anything in that folder is considered spam by Comcast even if you subsequently delete that folder's contents.  You could also schedule the spam folder's contents to be deleted after a number of days.  Again, that is done by choosing preferences in email or going to Customer Central.

2)  If you click the "spam" button for something in your inbox it is moved to the spam folder and noted as spam.  Doing this is how you you help the filters "learn".

mady

[401]

Comcast blocks millions of spam emails per day.  I'm talking about the ones that never get to the customer's email account because they're blocked.

ml:

> Anything in that [spam] folder is considered spam by Comcast

That cannot be true.  If Comcast _knew_ that it was spam they would have blocked it and it would never have gotten to the customer's email account.  The spam folder is Comcast saying "we're guessing this might be spam, but we're not sure."

[madylarian]

mady

[lavi6]

I cannot get an answer to these 2 questions.

1 where do I find the spam controlls?

2 How do I get that dreadful picture off of my name?

[CCCarole]

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lavi6 wrote:

I cannot get an answer to these 2 questions.

1 where do I find the spam controlls?

2 How do I get that dreadful picture off of my name?

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1- The controls for Spam Filtering is located in Customer Central.  Click on My Account to go to Customer Central.  Once there click on the Users & Settings tab.  Scroll down to Email Settings and click on EDIT next to the Spam Filter.

2- Avatars are controlled in My Settings (Top left of every Forum page)

    Open My Settings and click on the Avatars tab.  There is a drop down box where you can choose a different Avatar.  There are a number of different categories to choose from.

[lavi6]

I am on my settings and cannot see an Avitar button to choose from?

[CCCarole]

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lavi6 wrote:

I am on my settings and cannot see an Avitar button to choose from?

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Do you not see this when you open My Settings?  Which of these tabs do you see?

[lavi6]

There is no Avatar button

it goes from Preferences to Tagging etc.

[BruceW]

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lavi6 wrote: There is no Avatar button  it goes from Preferences to Tagging etc.

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Sign in the Forums and click http://forums.comcast.com/t5/user/myprofilepage/tab/user-icons. Please let us know the results.

[lavi6]

Support Forums or Help with Forums?

[emtobitsch]

Thanks for taking the time to explain that. I didn't realize that the folder was connected directly to your system to generate the report.  To the regular user, it just looked like a regular folder that just 'sat' there!

Now another question somewhat related to this.  Since I posted that question, I have received 11 emails telling me there was another post related to the subject "spam".  How can I get out of this so my inbox isn't inundated? Thanks again.

[lavi6]

same here, I appreciate gettings an answer but it is duplicated many times?

[BruceW]

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emtobitsch wrote: ... How can I get out of this so my inbox isn't inundated? Thanks again.

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Near the top of the forum page, click "Topic Options", then "Unsubscribe" to stop receiving email notices for this topic.

[lavi6]

Is that at Comcast help and support  forum?

[lavi6]

I cannot find this

[lavi6]

It just comes up on top > My settings: Avatar

But I cannot click on it to open it

[CCCarole]

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lavi6 wrote:

Support Forums or Help with Forums?

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The Help forums.  If you do not see a tab for Avatars, that means it has not been allowed yet because you haven't posted enough times in the Forums.  I will notify the Administrator of this and see if he can fix it for you.  Since it is the weekend, yuou may not hear anything until early next week though.

CC

[CCCarole]

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BruceW wrote:

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emtobitsch wrote: ... How can I get out of this so my inbox isn't inundated? Thanks again.

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Near the top of the forum page, click "Topic Options", then "Unsubscribe" to stop receiving email notices for this topic.

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First open the Thread you are referring to here in the Hel[p Forums.  On the top left side after you open the thread you will see Topic Options: >>With the drop down arrow.  Click on the unsubscribetext and you will no longer receive email notifications of new posts made to that particular thread.

CC

[401]

"When you enable the spam filter and 'keep a local copy' email _considered to be spam_ will be delivered to the 'Spam" folder."

Here is what is not clear about email that end up in the spam folder.

Fact:

Credible sources say that somewhere around 80% of all email is spam.  Plus or minus, approximately.

Inference:

Comcast _blocks_ Millions of emails per day. "Blocks" means that they are not sent to the customer's email account.

_These_ spam emails, from the "lower skill level" spammers, have identifiable characteristics:  long "to" fields with lots of recipients in the same email, obviously bogus "from" addresses, same message body that has previously been identified as spam, etc.  These are the obvious spam emails, and Comcast blocks them entirely.

Is the above true or false?

I believe it to be true.

Then I can think of two cases:

1) Of all those Millions of daily spam emails, I am only the recipient of a very few of them (1 or 2).  Comcast does not block _any_ spam to me, they put _all spam addressed to me_ in my spam folder.

2) Comcast blocks Millions of spam every day, including many that are addressed to me, because Comcast is sure that they are spam.  The few that Comcast is _not sure about_, they put in my spam folder.

I do not find 1) believable.  The spammers sell mailing lists.  I've got to be on many spam mailing lists.

I find 2) believable.  Nobody, including Comcast, can be _absolutely certain_ 100.0% of the time.  Therefore there must be some "questionable" emails that are delivered to customers' spam folders.

[401]

lavi6:

Details matter!

People who are trying to help you have posted, multiple times, asking for details.

You have not answered those questions.

You just keep saying that "it doesn't work".

That's not the way to get things fixed.

[steve-baker]

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401 wrote:

"When you enable the spam filter and 'keep a local copy' email _considered to be spam_ will be delivered to the 'Spam" folder."

Here is what is not clear about email that end up in the spam folder.

Fact:

Credible sources say that somewhere around 80% of all email is spam.  Plus or minus, approximately.

Inference:

Comcast _blocks_ Millions of emails per day. "Blocks" means that they are not sent to the customer's email account.

_These_ spam emails, from the "lower skill level" spammers, have identifiable characteristics:  long "to" fields with lots of recipients in the same email, obviously bogus "from" addresses, same message body that has previously been identified as spam, etc.  These are the obvious spam emails, and Comcast blocks them entirely.

Is the above true or false?

I believe it to be true.

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That's not how it works. Most spam is blocked via the DNSBLs (DNS based Block Lists) that Comcast use, including their own home grown list that causes most of the false positives that customers see. You can see which lists they use by perusing the error codes at http://postmaster.comcast.net/smtp-error-codes.php . It's not about content, Comcast refuses all email from blocklisted IP addresses. You can usually get blocks lifted when they're in Comcast's own list by talking to the right people at Comcast.

The Spam Filter, on the other hand, is all about content, and there aren't degrees of how spammy an email looks. If the Spam Filter is triggered the email will be handled according to how the user has configured their Spam Filter. You can usually get the Spam Filter adjusted by talking to the right people at Comcast, too.

The "right people at Comcast" are the mods here (although their attention can be spotty), and the folks at: Customer Security Assurance at 888-565-4329. Normal business hours are 6:00 AM to 2:00 AM EST, 7 days a week.

While I'm blathering a bit, here's a couple more points. There are other filters at Comcast that can cause incoming email to silently disappear. Virus filters, for example. And other filters that, for example, cause email with a one character Subject and a one character body to silently disappear. And, outgoing email that triggers the Spam Filter will silently disappear!

[lavi6]

Thank you so much for explaining that to me, I never would of figured that answer out myself.

I will wait unit I hear from them. 

It has been very frustrating trying to figure out why I did not have Avatar on my menu and also why I have been receiving so much spam the last few weeks.  I like Comcast and would hate to have it start this spam getting through as it is so annoying.

[ComcastJordan]

Spot on, Steve.  I don't think you missed anything there.  The spam folder is used when/if the customer tells us to use it.  It has nothing to do with how "spammy" we think the message is.  It's either spam or it's not as far as we can tell.

[xofer]

Please clarifiy.  Is the email address to report spam to comcast this?  missed-spam@comcast.net or just spam@comcast.net??

[ComcastJordan]

The address is missed-spam@comcast.net

[xofer]

Thank you for the clarification.  This will enable me to send back to comcast at least 15 spam mails (all duplicates to my 4 accounts) daily back to comcast.

[chipjo]

I have 3 accounts...but only one is getting 3-4 spam mail each and every day...for months. Yes...I would venture to say...70-100 per month.

 They are all from 'Canadian Pharmacy' or related, all involve 'Penxx', 'Viagra', 'Cilias',

I send each one to spam@comcast.net, then 'block sender' and delete.  However they still keep coming.

 It would seem simple that Comcast could stop this vile spam...but it just keeps on coming.

Hey...this posting would not allow me to use the word 'Penix' calling it a 'bad word'...yet, I keep getting emails every day with the word...!!!!

[CajunTek]

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chipjo wrote:

I have 3 accounts...but only one is getting 3-4 spam mail each and every day...for months. Yes...I would venture to say...70-100 per month.

 They are all from 'Canadian Pharmacy' or related, all involve 'Penxx', 'Viagra', 'Cilias',

I send each one to spam@comcast.net, then 'block sender' and delete.  However they still keep coming.

 It would seem simple that Comcast could stop this vile spam...but it just keeps on coming.

Hey...this posting would not allow me to use the word 'Penix' calling it a 'bad word'...yet, I keep getting emails every day with the word...!!!!

Well that's email, not a public forum, that may have kids visiting. Now spammers don't care. but I am sure you do.

[chipjo]

Can Comcast stop these spams?

[BruceW]

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chipjo wrote: ... I send each one to spam@comcast.net ...

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Please use "missed-spam@comcast.net".

From http://xfinity.comcast.net/constantguard/Support/Submitting-Reports under "Report Phishing and Spam Issues" / "How to Report Spam Issues":

  Webmail Users

     1. Select the message you wish to report as spam
     2. 'Click' the "Report as Spam" button in the right-hand corner of the Webmail Console

  Email Client Users (Outlook Express, Outlook Thunderbird, etc.)

     1. Select the message you wish to report as spam
     2. Forward the spam message as an attachment to missed-spam@comcast.net