Anti-Spam Tool
The anti-spam tool allows the user to adjust the level of filtering used to determine whether or not an e-mail is spam.
As each piece of mail is delivered to your Inbox, it is filtered by the anti-spam tool. The tool tests the e-mail by looking at the headers to identify forgeries, inconsistencies, etc, and by looking at the content for various keywords, sentences, URLs, etc.
Rather than simply identifying e-mail as spam or not, each test has a score associated with it. After all the tests are done, the scores are added up for a total score. If this total score is equal to or above a certain user-selected threshold, the mail is flagged as being spam.
Here are a few examples of the tests that are performed by the anti-spam tool:
Score |
Reason |
0.1 |
If it contains the string, “As seen on national TV.” |
0.1 |
If it contains “Click here” |
4.1 |
If there is a forgery in the header. |
3.3 |
If only HTML from AOL (AOL users can't send HTML-only messages) |
1.1 |
If it talks about weight loss. |
2.8 |
If it speaks about “Oprah!” but not “Oprah”, “Oprah,” “Oprah.”.... |
1.2 |
If message is all HTML |
1.5 |
If message contains the string, “This is not spam.” |
What happens to spam?
Mail that is flagged as spam is put into a folder called Spam (or Pourriel). You may choose to keep mail in your Spam folder for up to 21 days. A process is run every night, which purges all mail in the Spam folder that is older than 1-21 days (depending on what you have specified in your spam filtering options).
An e-mail software configured to use the IMAP protocol is required to subscribe to your new Spam folder.
If your e-mail software is configured to use IMAP, you will see two main headings (Local Folders and mailbox.uottawa.ca) in your folder list.
If you see only Local Folders, then you are using the POP protocol. Access your Spam folder by:
• Using UOttawa webmail available from www.uottawa.ca/email and subscribing to your Spam folder or
• Re-configuring your e-mail software to use the IMAP protocol and subscribing to your new Spam folder.
If you wish to re-configure your e-mail software to use the IMAP protocol or would like more information, please fill out the on-line help form at http://www.ccs.uottawa.ca/cybersos/ .
Once you've subscribed to your Spam folder, you can sort through the mail in it. If you look at the headers of each e-mail within your Spam folder, you will see the score and the reason(s) why that particular e-mail received that score. In particular, you should take note of any valid e-mail was blocked.
You should expect to have a large portion of spam blocked. Be sure to read all documentation provided. Improper use of this tool could cause you to lose valid e-mail.
