I run scripts to generate weekly statistics of how effective various RBL’s are for whitelisting/blacklisting of IP addresses sending email into servers that I look after.
Near the end of 2018, this is the current RBL performance I’m seeing on my servers.
Listed as a percentage of blocked/rejected incoming mail connections.
| RBL | Blocked % |
|---|---|
| Spamhaus Zen | 81.63 |
| JMF-Black | 13.56 |
| UCEPROTECT-1 | 3.09 |
| Gbudb | 1.08 |
| Barracuda | 0.33 |
| Spamcop | 0.25 |
| WPBL | 0.06 |
I specify RBLs in my Exim configuration in order of their efficiency at blocking spam connections, from time to time I change the order based on effectiveness. The Spamhaus Zen list has been at the top for a long time!
These stats don’t show overlap of the various RBL’s as it’s based on outright blocking, so whichever RBL blocked first gets the statistic.
One of the best sites I’ve found as a reference point for RBLs is Intra2net.
They have statistics on how effective the various lists are including false positives as well as showing how much an RBL overlaps with other similar RBL’s.
It’s a great resource for comparing against your own data or for using to help you make decisions on what RBL’s to use in your own configuration.