Defeating "gif" spam

Gif Spam is characterized by seemingly random text in the text portion of the message with normally a gif image promoting a stock purchase. Spammers sending these seem to be configuring their spam mailing systems to retry delivery, so this spam is getting through the Greylisting service.

Gif files are used because they can display text efficiently in an image without noise from image compression.

Filtering Gif Spam

R4L has devised a filter you can set up in your webmail account to block these spam messages from reaching your inbox. To set up this filter:

1. Log into your webmail account using the http://mail2. plus your domain interface.
2. If you do not already have a spam folder set up, click on Folders and create a spam folder.
3. On the Upper menu, click Options.
4. Under the Other Options column, click on Filters.
5. Click on the Edit your Filter Rules link. This brings you to a list of your mail filters.
6. At the bottom of this page, click the New Filter button and then configure the following:
   • Next to Rule Name: name your filter "Gif Filter". (optional).
   • Select the All of the following radio button (should be already selected).
   • Choose Self-Defined Header from the pull down menu and type in Content-Type.
   • Next to this, choose Begins with, and type in multipart/related; as the data for this option.
   • Choose Size as the next option, select Greater Than and type in 12000 as the value.
   • Under the Do this: section, choose Deliver to Folder option and select your spam folder.
   • click the selection for Stop checking if this rule matches? and click the Save button.

This will now automatically move any email matching this pattern to your spam folder. You should check and empty your spam folder periodically.