Filtering Spam in Entourage — Advanced
Last updated
August 21, 2009 10:23:08 AM PDT
Set up mail filters to decrease junk mail (also known as spam) in your e-mail inbox. This advanced form of filtering allows you to spam "score" and create rules to prevent specific e-mail messages from being tagged as spam.
In the right place? See also basic instructions.
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- UCSD's spam filtering system assigns each message a score, representing the probability that the message in question is spam.
- A message is tagged as spam if it receives a score of 5.0 or above, represented in the mail message in the X-Spam-Level header by the number of asterisks (*).
- Choosing a lower value will result in a greater volume of spam in your spam folder, but will also increase the likelihood of a legitimate mail message being sorted as spam.
- To determine the level at which you feel comfortable filtering, examine the assigned score on a variety of messages in your inbox.
- View the mail headers of your e-mail by double-clicking a message.
- Click the View pull-down menu, and select Internet Headers. The spam score usually appears near the bottom.
- Open Entourage.
- Select Tools, and then click Rules.
- Click on New.
- For Rule name type Spam
- Click the arrows next to All messages, and select Specific Header.
- In the field next to it, type X-Spam-Level. In the text field next to Contains, type the number of *s you wish to set as your cutoff level (4 or 5 is a good place to start).
- Click the down arrow next to Change status, and select Move message.
- Click the arrows next to Inbox, and select Choose folder.
- Click New Folder.
- Type Spam in the Name field.
- Click Create to continue. The new Spam rule will show up in your Rules window. You may now close the window.
- To create an exception for a specific e-mail, continue to Step 7; otherwise, skip to Step 10.
- To override the spam filters for a specific e-mail (e.g., your friend, gblufin@hotmail.com, sends e-mail that is constantly filtered into the spam folder) to prevent it from being filtered out, create an exception rule.
- Select Tools, and then click Rules.
- Double-click the check box for Spam.
- Click Add Criterion.
- To create an exception rule using someone's e-mail address, select From.
- Select Does not contain.
- In the blank field next to it, specify the e-mail address (i.e., gblufin@hotmail.com).
- You can add more exception rules by repeating these steps. Click OK when finished.
- Close the Rules window.
- Incoming e-mail that appears to be spam will automatically be moved to the new folder you created.
- It's possible for legitimate e-mail to be marked as spam. Periodically check the contents of the Spam folder to ensure that this has not occurred before deleting its contents.
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