Spam filtering nears breakdown, cautions expert

"Traditional spam filtering breaks down when a user receives 30 or more per day in his or her in-box, according to New Millennium Solutions (NMS) Chairman, Peter Stewart. He believes that thousands of office workers are nearing the critical point at which their filtering ceases to be effective, because of the high volumes they receive. NMS puts spam levels into three categories: none, trickle (2-3 a day) and flood (30 or more a day). Stewart says junk email is a nuisance up to 2-3 per day, then some automation (usually filtering) is required. He explains: “The filtering approach was designed to handle junk mail for people receiving between zero and sufficient numbers to cause a nuisance. The real issue now is for people in the flood category, where filtering is not viable.”" Source: computerworld.com