Email Services Webmail Managing SPAM
Managing SPAM

Managing SPAM

Guide Overview

This section describes how to work with SPAM in webmail, including:

  • Rules that define what constitutes SPAM
  • How to set up SPAM filters
  • How to use the webmail SPAM folder
  • How to report an email as SPAM
  • How to report an email as legitimate
  • How to use the Blacklist and Whitelist functions to manage emails
SPAM Rules

SPAM Rules

To determine why a certain email was flagged as SPAM, follow these instructions:

  1. View the full headers of the email message.
    • Webmail - Click the Show All Headers link in the message headers.
    • Mozilla Thunderbird - Click the View menu and select Message Source.
    • Eudora - Use the Blah Blah Blah icon to show full headers.
    • Outlook - Use the View menu Options option to examine Internet Headers.
  2. Examine the header entitled X-Spam-Status. In this header the hits field represents the score of your message. The higher the score the more likely the message is to be SPAM.
  3. The tests field also shows the particular tests that this message failed, which contributed to its score.
    Each test attempts to evaluate some aspect of the sender, formatting or content of the mail in order to determine whether it is SPAM.

We use an internet-wide, automatically updated database of rules, maintained by SpamAssassin. To look up more verbose reasons behind the rules marked in a SPAM message, refer to the listing of current SpamAssassin rules at the following URL:
    http://spamassassin.apache.org/tests_3_2_x.html

Setting Up SPAM Filters

Setting Up SPAM Filters

  1. Log in to Webmail.
  2. Click the Account Options link in the left pane, if the Account Options section is not already expanded.
  3. Under Account Options, click the Spam Filtering link.
    The Spam filtering options page is displayed. Note that your present filtering status is indicated at the top of the page.
  4. Select Enable Spam Filtering to enable SPAM filtering, or select Disable Spam Filtering to disable SPAM filtering.
  5. Click Submit.
    The Spam filtering options page refreshes, and your updated filtering status is indicated at the top of the page.
Managing the SPAM Folder

Managing the SPAM Folder

You can access your SPAM inbox from any IMAP mail client (Mozilla Thunderbird or HMDC Webmail) just as you do with your normal email Inbox. Your SPAM inbox appears as a subfolder under your normal email Inbox.

Note: If you cannot see your SPAM inbox in your mail client, you need to subscribe to the SPAM folder.

  1. Launch webmail.
  2. Click your SPAM folder.
  3. Look at the messages that were placed in your SPAM folder.
    If you find a message that you wish to keep, move or copy it to your Inbox. Messages in your SPAM folder are deleted automatically on a biweekly schedule. You can manually delete unwanted messages from your SPAM folder more frequently if you wish.
  4. If you find a message in your SPAM folder that is not SPAM, refer to Blacklisting and Whitelisting to find out how to whitelist the sender and not mark that mail as  SPAM.
Reporting a Message as SPAM

Reporting a Message as SPAM

The best way to ensure future SPAM messages are correctly marked is to report messages that are not marked to our SPAM software. SPAM reporting has consequences for everyone's receipt of mail. Please report only unsolicited mail as SPAM. For example, if the mail appears to come from a mailing list, please attempt to unsubscribe first. If you wish to block an email sender for personal reasons, please use the personal SPAM blacklist function instead. Please Note: Do not use the following procedure to report messages that have been correctly marked as SPAM. Only use this procedure for messages that you feel are SPAM that have not been marked as SPAM.

  • To report unmarked SPAM messages as SPAM, simply move or copy the message to your Report_as_SPAM mail folder.
    Messages in your Report_as_SPAM folder are deleted on a nightly basis when they are processed by the SPAM filtering software.
  • Every HMDC email user has a Report_as_SPAM mail folder.
    If you cannot see your Report_as_SPAM mail folder in your email client, you need to subscribe to the folder before you can move or copy messages into it.
    If you accidentally deleted your Report_as_SPAM folder, you can recreate it with the exact name Report_as_SPAM.

These folders are automatically monitored, and our SPAM filtering software enters the messages from these folders into our database of known SPAM messages. This database is used by our SPAM filtering software to evaluate whether an incoming email message is SPAM or not.

Reporting a Message as Legitimate

Reporting a Message as Legitimate

The best way to ensure future SPAM messages are correctly marked is to report messages that are incorrectly marked as SPAM to our SPAM software. SPAM reporting has consequences for everyone's receipt of mail. Please report only unsolicited mail as SPAM.

  • To report incorrectly marked legitimate message, simply move or copy the message to your Report_as_NOTSPAM mail folder.
    Messages in your Report_as_NOTSPAM folder are deleted on a nightly basis when they are processed by the SPAM filtering software.
  • Every HMDC email user has a Report_as_NOTSPAM mail folder.
    If you cannot see your Report_as_SPAM mail folder in your email client, you need to subscribe to the folder before you can move or copy messages into it.
    If you accidentally deleted your Report_as_NOTSPAM folder, you can recreate it with the exact name Report_as_NOTSPAM.

These folders are automatically monitored, and our SPAM filtering software enters the messages from these folders into our database of known SPAM messages. This database is used by our SPAM filtering software to evaluate whether an incoming email message is SPAM or not.

Blacklisting and Whitelisting

Blacklisting and Whitelisting

Blacklisting and whitelisting can help you to better fine-tune your SPAM controls.

Blacklisting a Sender

The HMDC email system allows each user to keep a personal blacklist of email sender addresses that always should be marked as SPAM. To add an address from an email message to your personal SPAM blacklist:

  1. Log in to Webmail.
  2. Open a message from the sender you wish to blacklist.
  3. Click the Blacklist link.

To edit your personal SPAM blacklist:

  1. Log in to Webmail.
  2. Click the Account Options link in the left pane.
  3. Under Account Options, click the Spam Blacklist link.
  4. Add or edit the addresses to blacklist in the Addresses text area, one address per line.

Whitelisting a Sender

The HMDC email system allows you to keep a personal whitelist of email sender addresses that never should be marked as SPAM. To add an address from an email message to your personal SPAM whitelist:

  1. Log in to Webmail.
  2. Open a message from the sender who you choose to whitelist.
  3. Click the Whitelist link.

To edit your personal SPAM whitelist and add or delete individual email addresses:

  1. Log in to Webmail.
  2. Click the Account Options link in the left pane.
  3. Under Account Options, click the Spam Whitelist link.
  4. Add or edit the addresses to whitelist in the Addresses text area, one address per line.
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