Spam Spell Checker

Freshness Warning
This article is over 8 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current.

Here’s a freebie idea to anyone that wants it. Most of the spam that sneaks into my inbox past SpamAssassin and my Bayesian spam filter gets there because almost every word in the message is intentionally misspelled. By not giving the filter recognizable content, the messages get past. So how about a spam filter that works by spell check? If more than 50% of the words are misspelled, there’s a good bet that the message is spam or in a language I can’t read anyway.

BillSaysThis
June 26, 2003 10:47 AM

Very cool idea! I would love to improve the efficiency of my filter and at the same time deprive these jizzbots of a valuable tool.

Cal
June 26, 2003 11:49 AM

Unfortunately, I’ve got a few friends who probably spell over half the words in their emails wrong.

Adam Kalsey
June 26, 2003 12:04 PM

That’s what whitelists are for.

Phil Ringnalda
June 26, 2003 9:08 PM

I was thinking that, rather than false positives, those would just be quite acceptable collateral damage. Maybe bounce based on a whitelist, to give actual humans a chance to think about the error of their ways…

Roger Patton
January 8, 2006 6:37 PM

This is a great idea. To address the issue of friends e-mail getting caught in the filter one could have a slide bar which could set the acceptable number of spelling errors before kicking in out as spam.

Roger Patton
January 8, 2006 6:38 PM

This is a great idea. To address the issue of friends e-mail getting caught in the filter one could have a slide bar which could set the acceptable number of spelling errors before kicking it out as spam.

Max
April 14, 2006 4:32 AM

I was searching the net for a program based on this idea when I came across this blog. Unfortunately, much of the misspelling falls far under 50%. They only need to misspell the words that would tend to trigger the filter (such as “Viagra”, “discount”, etc.). The email that caused me to look for such a program only needed to misspell 3.7 percent of its words in order to fool my installation of spampal and a server level spam filter. This program would need to be able to whitelist my address book so all my spelling challenged friends don’t get caught. Another feature that needs to be added is for spam that puts no words in the text and one picture with the spam message. Another solution is to tattoo misspelled words all over convicted spammer’s bodies in addition to their prison time. By the way, this post had 7% misspelled words before I spell checked it.

Paul
September 6, 2006 9:20 AM

I was looking for this as a solution also and found this blog. I was hoping that someone would have put it into practice by now. I would be satisfied if they would just spell check the subject line, a single typo would be my trigger. And I think if our spelling challenged friends using computers to send email can’t find the spell checker they need a different kind of help. Why should we have to accept poor grammar and spelling? I’m tired of being PC in a world where I am under attack from all sides. Besides I’ve found my spelling has improved since I make it a point to use a checker. I’m not perfect but as Mary Poppins once said: “Practice doesn’t make perfect, Perfect practice makes perfect.” (BTW: ‘blog’ fails the spell check.)

tom dickson
March 7, 2008 1:44 PM

I’ve yet to have new idea that someone else hasn’t had years, if not centuries, before me … like this one … I presently accept mail directly into my inbox from two groups: those in my address book, and previous recipients … others get either redirected or deleted depending on what tests they pass or failed … it it were available, spellcheck would be one of these tests

Mark Hampton
July 3, 2008 1:51 AM

Rather than rejecting on a spellcheck why not run a spellcheck and fix the spelling mistakes automatically before running the message through the SPAM filter ?


Your comments:

Text only, no HTML. URLs will automatically be converted to links. Your email address is required, but it will not be displayed on the site.

Name:

Not your company or your SEO link. Comments without a real name will be deleted as spam.

Email: (not displayed)

If you don't feel comfortable giving me your real email address, don't expect me to feel comfortable publishing your comment.

Website (optional):

Follow me on Twitter

Lijit Search

Best Of

  • Comment Spam Manifesto Spammers are hereby put on notice. Your comments are not welcome. If the purpose behind your comment is to advertise yourself, your Web site, or a product that you are affiliated with, that comment is spam and will not be tolerated. We will hit you where it hurts by attacking your source of income.
  • Best of Newly Digital There have been dozens of Newly Digital entries from all over the world. Here are some of the best.
  • Let it go Netscape 4 is six years old.
  • The importance of being good Starbucks is pulling CD burning stations from their stores. That says something interesting about their brand.
  • Google on the desktop Google picks up Picasa, giving them an important foothold on people's PCs.
  • More of the best »

Recently Read

Get More

Subscribe | Archives

8

Recently

invisible Fence (Mar 22)
The New York Times has a paywall now. Sorta. If you don't choose to ignore it.
Black status icon for Chrometa (Mar 17)
Replacing the status icon of Chrometa
Using Google Voice as your voicemail on AT&T (Oct 26)
How I set up my iPhone to use Google Voice as it's voicemail system.
Don Mattingly forced to make coaching change (Sep 17)
New LA Dodgers coach starts to wonder if he knows the rules of baseball at all.
In which Vonage pretends their prices haven't changed (Apr 12)
Translating what Vonage marketing says about their price increase into plain English.
Twitter app competition (Apr 12)
Life as a Twitter app developer is far from over.
Twitter app competition (Apr 12)
Life as a Twitter app developer is far from over.
The rest of the world is not like you (Apr 5)
Normal people are different. Keep that in mind when creating or marketing a product.

Subscribe to this site's feed.

Elsewhere

IMified
Build instant messaging applications. (My company)
SacStarts
The Sacramento technology startup community.
Pinewood Freak
Pinewood Derby tips and tricks

Contact

Adam Kalsey

Mobile: 916.600.2497

Email: adam AT kalsey.com

AIM or Skype: akalsey

Resume

PGP Key

©1999-2012 Adam Kalsey.
Content management by Movable Type.