How can I reduce the amount spam I receive?

The following steps will help to dramatically reduce the amount of spam seen in your mailbox.

1. Set the default address to :fail: (with the leading and trailing colons). Spammers have rendered the default/catchall address concept useless, by continually sending junk mail to random addresses at a domain. As the default address is designed to store this type of mail, this can lead to increased spam loads. Setting the default to :fail: will reject messages addressed to nonexistent mailboxes or forwarders at your domain.

2. If you use the default address to collect mail, that address can still be used even after following step one above. Recreate the default address as a standalone mailbox under Mail Management -> Add/Remove Accounts. You can then check this mailbox as you would any other secondary mailbox, by logging in with the entire email address.

3. Use MailScanner to delete items tagged as spam. MailScanner is available under the option of the same name from the main control panel page. Set low and high scoring actions to delete for all domains associated with the account. The scoring levels can be changed under the "other settings" option. We would caution that the scores not be set too high, as this will allow lower scoring items that are still spam to be delivered. By default, the low score is set to 5, which is generally sufficient to allow legitimate mail in while keeping most spam out.

4. Use additional filters as necessary. There will always be some percentage of spam that scores under the threshold set within MailScanner, for various reasons, and setting filters under Mail Management -> Email filtering will help deal with that percentage. We recommend using the "any header" option for filters that deal with specific IP addresses or subject lines (or partial subject lines).

  • 14 Users Found This Useful
Was this answer helpful?

Related Articles

EMAIL: Deferred mail when sending to Yahoo

Issue: Mail sent to Yahoo-based addresses, particularly from mailing lists or forms, results in a...

Cannot send email: No valid recipient error

Symptom: Client using Outlook reports that sending mail fails with an undeliverable notice. The...

How do I set a filter to delete spam using Mailscanner

Standalone filters are unnecessary. To delete mail tagged as spam by Mailscanner, choose the...

Email: Not receiving email

Symptom: Client is not receiving email at one or more mailboxes under their account.Cause: Most...

POPping mail results in the error

Symptom: Customer reports the following error when attempting to check email via a POP session:...