Thank you for asking.  We do indeed have a system to mitigate spam upstream.  

For some time now, we have been using a computer program to scan all email passing through our systems.  It is called SpamAssassin (SA), and it examines email headers and content for tokens known to be associated with spam.  It provides a score, a number, included in a special header line, which is a statistical guess at the probability that the message is spam.  The scoring is not perfect, and sometimes gives inappropriate scores, but millions are using it effectively now.  

We include in this reply a recipe for using the SA scores to mitigate spam.  If you have questions, always please call our help line (247-0888 8:30 AM to 9 PM weekdays and 9 to 5 weekends).  Some more information is available on our web site at www.nmia.com.  If properly and carefully followed, it will reduce received spam levels dramatically.  It takes patience and a little time to work properly.

These steps must be taken in sequence, to best manage spam.

1.) Ask to have the SA scores added to the "Subject:" line, where you can see them (normally the score is not seen by most email handlers, i.e., Outlook, Eudora, Netscape, etc.) -->  You will begin to see a series of capital Q characters at the end of the "Subject:" line of any message given a positive score by SA.  Negative scores are not shown.  

We have taken the liberty of already doing this first step for you.  

2.) (Very Important) Ignore all spam messages and their scores.  For a week or two, watch ONLY the ham scores, i.e., on desired messages.  Make note carefully of the highest SA score you see on any identified ham messages you get.  The Spam scores are not important, they may be very high or even zero, but we must know the highest score on your ham messages.  

3.) After a few weeks, let us know that maximum score and we can set a discard filter a little higher than that value.  Thus you will preserve all ham and eliminate much of the spam.   Note, the scores on spam may be higher or lower than that value, no matter.  After this is done;

4.) If it seems appropriate, you can then collect samples of any ham messages which you regularly receive, which have those high scores.   (only regularly received ham applies here, e.g., mail lists, relatives, friends)  Call us and we'll explain how you can forward the headers of those messages to us so that ...;

5.) We can make a white list filter which will flag such messages to bypass any filtering based on SA scores, ensuring delivery of those desired emails.   This, in turn, will allow us to lower the score used in the discard filter, getting rid of more spam.

6.) This next step may not be needed.  If a few especially offensive and repetitive spam messages become  annoying, their header information can be collected and used for a black list filter to force their discard.  Unfortunately, variations on words are nearly impossible to predict.  Therefore, most black lists do little good since the offense rarely repeats exactly.

Other than fine tuning each of these steps, there are a few heroic measures NMIA can consider if you are still getting much more spam than ham.

It cannot be over emphasized:
The scores you see on spam messages are of no consequence.  If it's spam it's spam, no matter the score.  What matters is the scores you find on messages you want to receive, i.e., on ham.  So begin by ignoring spam; and focus on the scores assigned to your ham messages.  They are the key, and necessary to tuning the best discard filter.  That, in combination with a possible white list does most of the job.

Please let us know if you have any questions or when you are ready to begin the next step in the process.

Help Desk at NMIA

Btw, it is possible to have an effect, usually temporary, on spam by changing ones account name.  This is sometimes more effective if ones current name is very familiar, e.g., mary or john.  With your current account name, this is unlikely to offer any long lasting help.