Spam Management:

  End-User System

Spam Docs:

  Spam Home

  Spam Awareness

  Spam FAQ

Filter Guides:

  Pine Filtering

  WebMail Filtering

  Eudora

  Outlook Express

  Outlook 2K/XP

WebMail allows you to set up filters to sort your email into different folders, or delete certain messages. You can use this functionality, in conjunction with the Spam Tagging service available on mail.rochester.edu, to filter unwanted messages out of your inbox.

With spam tagging enabled, all spam-identified messages will have a subject that begins with:

        Subject: ~SPAM=[SCORE]~

The SCORE here is the rating the spam detection software has given a particular piece of email. This rating is based on an extensive scoring system that assigns values certain aspects of email messages. For instance, email messages that have words in all capitals will score higher than email messages that do not include "lines of yelling". If you are interested in the complete rules, check here: spam rules.

You can create a filter in WebMail to detect all messages tagged as spam and move them to a different folder.

First, you need to create a new folder to store these messages.

1. When you log in to WebMail, there is a row of buttons along the top of your screen. Click on the "Folders" button:

   

2. You will then be taken to the Folder Management screen. To create a "SPAM" folder, type SPAM in the box labelled Folder Name and click Create:

   

Next, you need to set up the filter to sort spam messages into that folder.

1. Click on the Options button at the top of the screen

   

2. You will then be taken to the Options screen. To create a filter, click on Filtering Rules.

   

3. On the Filtering Rules screen, set up your filter:
   • Under If Header, select Subject from the pulldown menu.
   • Under Contains, type ~SPAM= in the text box.
   • Under Action, select Move from the menu.
   • Under Dest Folder, select your SPAM folder.
   • Leave Dest Address blank.
   Your filter should look like this:

4. Click Save Config to save your changes.

Now, whenever you log into WebMail, any messages in your inbox with a Subject line containing ~SPAM= will be automatically moved into your SPAM folder. Be sure to check this folder from time to time to delete unwanted messages!

NOTE: Filters created in WebMail are only processed when you login in using WebMail. If you use another program to read your email, such as Pine or Eudora, you will need to set up separate filters if you do not wish to see messages tagged as spam in your inbox.

Procmail is a program that allows filtering of email before you open your inbox in WebMail or another email program. See here for more information about filtering your email on delivery using Procmail.