Read the information below or go directly to the new UCSD Spam Preferences tool.
Spam is unsolicited bulk email
Spam includes commercial solicitations, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and fraudulent offers.
UCSD is attacking spam
Many of the messages sent to UCSD email addresses (70%–80%) are classified as spam and removed before they reach your campus mailbox. The remaining messages are scanned and scored for spam potential. You now have several options for dealing with suspected spam.
Use the UCSD Spam Preferences tool
UCSD provides 3 options to manage spam. Explanations are listed below. To make your selection, go to the Spam Preferences tool.
Note: You need your Active Directory (AD) username and password to log in. Your AD username is usually the first part of your UCSD email address, before the @ symbol. If you forgot your password, you can reset it at password.ucsd.edu.
- Quarantine (recommended): Suspected spam is held in a quarantine area separate from your mailbox. You receive spam quarantine notifications twice a day if you have quarantined mail. See How to Use UCSD Spam Quarantine for more information.
- Tag: Detected spam is delivered and tagged with the email header "X-Spam-Status Yes."
- Drop: With the Drop option, detected spam messages are not delivered to your mailbox and can't be recovered.
Spam Detection Levels
- Default (Recommended)
- Detects general spam using the default spam detection engine database.
- High
- Detects both marketing-related and general spam using the default spam engine database and the marketing spam detection engine.
- Note: The High level has an increased potential to falsely detect legitimate messages as spam.
Block List Options
Email addresses or domains that you add to the blocklist are always identified as spam. Log in to https://spam.ucsd.edu to define and manage your blocklist.
- Drop (Recommended)
- Messages matching blocklist entries are automatically dropped.
- Note: Dropped messages can’t be recovered.
- Quarantine
- Messages matching blocklist entries are kept in a quarantine area separate from your mailbox. Log in to https://spam.ucsd.edu using your Active Directory username and password to view the messages.
Safelist
- Email addresses or domains that you add to the safelist are never identified as spam. Log in to https://spam.ucsd.edu to define and manage your safelist.
More you can do to stop spam
- Don't reply to spam messages. Replying confirms that your email is valid, and will probably result in you receiving more spam.
- Don't spread spam. Remember, sending chain letters is against university policy.
- Don't hesitate to use the delete key. The most reliable way to rid yourself of spam is to delete it.
It's not necessary to change your email address. Spammers can easily harvest addresses from infected machines. It takes about 2 weeks for your spam load to return to its previous level.