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important note
- If you have set your email client to use IMAP (which ITS strongly recommends) and you already use filters, you can use the instructions on this page to implement the NYUHome spam filter.
- If, on the other hand, you do not already have filters implemented, you should set up your spam filtering preferences through the NYUHome Preferences panel instead. See the NYUHome/ Messenger Express instructions for details. Do not use both methods.
To create or adjust a spam filter in the Apple Mail email client:
- Open the Mail application.
- From the Mailbox menu, select New Mailbox. The New Mailbox window will open. Name this new mailbox Spam or a name of your choice. This will be the folder to which mail considered spam will be delivered. Click the OK.
- From the Mail menu, select Preferences. The Accounts window will open.
- Select the Rules button. Click the Add Rule button.
- In the field next to Description, create a name for your rule. For example, "NYU Mail Spam Filter".
- Where it says If any of the following conditions are met, leave the default as any.
From the drop-down menu that defaults to From, select Edit Header List. In the blank field next to Header, you will define the spam filtering message header. Type in exactly: X-Spam-Level
Click the Add Header button. Click the OK button. Go back to the drop-down menu that defaults to From and select the new header X-Spam-Level you just created.
- If the drop-down menu isn't already set by default to Contains, choose Contains from the menu.
In the blank field next to Contains, you will set the level of spam filtering that you desire. If you leave this field blank, no spam filtering will be done.
There are three different levels:
- Light Only mail that is very likely to be spam is filtered. Some spam will still arrive in your Inbox. There will be few false positives*.
- Medium More spam filtered than the Light setting; more false positives.
- Strict Eliminates virtually all spam from your Inbox. Most likely to produce false positives.
*A false positive is desired mail that may be inadvertently filtered into your Spam folder because it may contain elements that are characteristic of spam (lots of capital letters or exclamation points, or phrases like "click here").
To choose one of the above options, you must type in the corresponding information exactly as below into the blank field under Specify a word or phrase to search for in the message header:
To choose the Light setting, type 5 capital X's: XXXXX To choose the Medium setting, type 4 capital X's: XXXX To choose the Strict setting, type 3 capital X's: XXX - Under the Perform the following actions: section, if the drop-down menu isn't already set by default to Transfer Message, choose Transfer Message from the menu.
- From the drop-down window that defaults to No mailbox selected, select your newly created "spam" mailbox. Click the OK button to save your changes. Close the Rules window.
Page last reviewed: August 19, 2008