Viewing Spam Status

In the header section of each email there is a Spam Status in which the message has been rated as to the possibility of being spam.

• Why is the Spam Score important to filtering email for Spam?
• Where do I go to view the spam status of an specific email?

Spam Score (Status) Filters

The X-Spam-Level filter allows you to select messages based on a spam score (the likelihood of a message being spam). You will be asked to specify a spam filtering level (designated by a specific number of asterisks [*]). Messages with equal or higher spam scores number of * will be selected.

X-Spam-Level. Messages destined for your INBOX are scanned by spam detection software and assigned a number of asterisks (*) (X-Spam-Level) representing roughly how many spam-like characteristics the message contains. This score is then recorded in a special header line that is used to filter the message.

Messages with higher X-Spam-Levels are more likely to be spam. Those with lower scores are less likely (i.e. more of them may be "innocent", or emails that you would prefer to receive).

Note that X-Spam-Levels are only an educated guess, based upon a set of rules. It is inherently impossible to identify spam with certainty.

Spam filtering level. Choosing the level at which to filter messages is a tradeoff between catching more spam versus erroneously catching "innocent" messages.

We suggest you start out with a filtering level of ****** (6 asterisks) and then adjust it based on your experience.

Adjusting the number downward (fewer asterisks) will filter out more spam (but also more innocent messages).

Adjusting the number upward (more asterisks) will filter out less spam (but also fewer innocent messages).

Careful! You might wish to start out using the "Save Spam to Folder" filter and save all the selected messages to a folder named "spam". Examine this folder to see what is being filtered out and adjust the filtering level accordingly. When the selection seems about right, you might choose to convert to a "Discard Spam" filter. (And don't forget to keep this folder cleaned out or it may push you over quota.)