"Intention Analysis"

[Matt Kettler]

Matt Hampton wrote:
> am.lists wrote:
>> This is something that the Barracuda says it has.  But googling for
>> "intention analysis" doesn't turn up much.
>>
>> Is this a marketing thing, or do the Barracuda folks have something
>> that they've made that is proprietary and an actual edge over running
>> MailScanner?
>>
>> Angelo
> 
> Ummm.  This seems to be little more than look for a url in the message,
> if it is in a black list tag the message as spam.
> 
> SpamAssassin can already do this using surbl.org black list.
> 
> (Personally I do it using milter-link)
> 
> It would be a nice feature of MailScanner actually.


Actually, I think it's not blacklist based.

Personally, it sounds like a collection of rules that look for general
directives to the end user like "Click here" "check out stock symbol xyz"
"please validate your account".

Note they use a URL as an example, but later in the description they use more
general terms about finding an action they're trying to get you to take..

It really sounds to me like a marketing label for a particular group of
body-text rules.

Some SpamAssassin rules that jump out at me as "intention analysis".
 HTML_LINK_OPT_OUT
 HTML_LINK_PUSH_HERE
 REMOVE_BEFORE_LINK
 CLICK_BELOW_CAPS
 CLICK_TO_REMOVE_1
 EXCUSE_REMOVE
 STRONG_BUY
 STOCK_ALERT
 MORTGAGE_PITCH
 CONSOLIDATE_DEBT
 REFINANCE_YOUR_HOME
 REFINANCE_NOW
  FREE_SAMPLE
 REPLICA_WATCH


Now, they might be doing something more complex, like doing a little natural
language processing, then checking that against a set list of "spam actions".
They might process out a wide variety of phrases to result in just "buy watch",
and text compare that..

Something like a simplified version of the concept presented here:

http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/404/nasukawa.html

Could be used as a form of preprocessor before applying spam rules.