Q: SPAM level increased last 2-3 weeks

Same here. Large increase in spam traffic to my iPhone 5 today. Disturbing.

Given Apple's size and growth rate, I'd definitely recommend protecting the

client-base by implementing strong filtering.

I am shocked there is no existing filter mechanism in place that caught these.

But don't switch to others just yet. Give Apple time to fix the error. Code is probably

being written right now to deal with the issue.

Thinking about my earlier proposal in this thread, the filtering is probably done on

the SMTP and IMAP servers in the cloud, rather than at the client (iPhone, iPad, etc.)

And, what I'd suggest, is add a secondary filter mechanism to an rushed-released version of

the iDevice Mail app, with choices similar to what appear on the Mac OS X

Mail app (always from contact book) but also include whitelist/blacklist ideas,

Bayesian distribution spam-filtering, and so forth, or simplify it so it isn't too confusing.

Concentric rings of security are important and spam is a very significant issue generally

which annoys customers and causes market share drop.

The above is how I'd handle it if I was coding it. If I've missed something, please let me know.

They definitely have filtering. Something is just broken. Has to be. In all my years of iTools, .mac, .me and icloud, I've had maybe 10 total spam emails. MAYBE. It has been outstanding, so I hope they restore it.

It does seem like a remarkable gap.

I would expect the configuration management tools to catch that kind of outage quickly and auto-fix.

That it doesn't is truly extraordinary coming from a company of Apple's obvious concern about the customer.

Very, very bizarre.

Apple seems to be aware they are experiencing recent SPAM issues, but remains reluctant to admit they are having an issue.  It would go a long way in helping to reassure their customers if they would make that acknowledgment and that they are trying to fix the issue.  Instead we get the nromal silent treatment from them when they have a known issue.

It's kind of like Nixon and Watergate.

Not good.

It has become awful for about a week now. 10 at a time, every few minutes.

I once reported to a chairman at a company. One of the things Bernhard said to his reports

was that "if wrong, admit it, as soon as possible".

Of the many things I learned from BB, the above has stuck.

Don't hide your errors.

Please please please log it with apple support, it's the only way they're gonna know and start taking notice.  They clearly don't have time to read these forums, so at least you know you've made them aware then.

Sudden rapid increase in spam after getting nearly no spam for years.  The messages appear to be easily detectable.  It's as though spam filtering just quit.

I'd encourage each of you to open a case by going to http://www.apple.com/support/contact/ and click through to get them to call you back.  Tell them exactly what you are experiencing.  After listening to me, they elevated me to second level support, gave me a case number and are filing a ticket with their engineering department.  If the hundreds (or probably thousands) of us having these problems contact them, it will show up on their radar.

Be polite, helpful, but firm and let them know you've read all the knowledgebase articles and done all of the smart email strategies of using aliases, protecting your email address, etc.  Explain that many others you know seem to be having the same problem and that it has been a SUDDEN, DRAMATIC, NEW issue.

Good luck and I hope we can get our excellent filtering back.

Completed and filed case id 395419630.

The promised callback is 8pm US Pacific time tonight...

After two failed calls from two different customer service reps, and I didn't sense a lot of

concern in either in regards to the issue described (for all of us), I reached a third who was

similarly unsympathetic.

Not good!

I had very attentive people, and they escalated it to engineering.  They must have discovered an issue or it's a coincidence, but my problem's been gone since I called them.

Any one else have their spam gone?

The spam has ceased, at least overnight today, so far.

But it is wayyyyyyy too soon to tell.

Hold on, give it some time, patience first, and wait.

Look, the other day some numbskull Amazon engineer flipped

the wrong switch on Christmas eve and took down Netflix (which

runs on the Amazon Elastic Compute Services cloud.)

It is entirely within the realm of likelihood that Apple's spam filter

was damaged in an entirely different way and that Apple did not

own up to it.

Your find may have pushed them over the edge to get it working

against for all of us.

Also, it is within the realm of reason that more gaps will be found,

because they don't have a solid version which is "only let people

into my inbox who are in my contacts book". The rest go to junk.

While that's available on the Mac OS X, it is not available on iOS.

Stuart

I've seen an influx of the same type of spam over the last few days.  It still comes in spurts, about four or five at a time.  I'm still forwarding them to spam@me.com with no apparent changes.  Same general shape to the messages, too:

<link>

<link>

<link>

<image>

 

Preferences
<image>

 

 

If you no longer wish to receive... blah blah blah... unsubscribe link.

I just got off the phone with a senior support advisor at Apple, who was fairly sympathetic to the whole thing.  As I expected, unfortunately, his temporary solution was to use the advanced filtering techniques in Apple Mail.  He did, however, change my call status from "technical" to "complaint" so the issue will be logged differently in their system.  Maybe more exposure, I don't really know.  He also said that it's a good idea to use the www.apple.com/feedback site and send them a link to this thread.

We've already expended enough energy on this stupid spammer, it's really time for a fix...