Spam — it's not just for breakfast anymore, but you can still take a bite out of it. Call it spam, junk mail, or unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) — most e-mail programs now provide filtering for it. This document will help you understand the limitations of filtering and provide resources for applying filters in the most popular programs.

Table of Contents

• Limitations

• Strategies

• Filtering for ITS-Supported E-mail Programs

• Filtering for Other E-Mail Programs

• Additional Resources

Limitations

Will applying filters stop all your spam? No. At best, you can expect between a 30 to 50% reduction, but that's only if you constantly update your filters.

Like postal junk mail and telemarketing, the vast majority of spam is created to help you part with your money. Spam is extremely cheap to send and can reach millions in a matter of seconds, so there's a huge economic potential. Those who create spam spend much of their time figuring out how to beat both your filters and those in commercial anti-spam products. Be prepared to continuously invest time and effort to achieve any level of success.

NOTE: The most effective way of dealing with spam is to simply delete it, especially without opening it. More information on spam and how to reduce it is available on the IT User Advocate website.

Table of Contents

Strategies

• Before purchasing a commercial anti-spam product, try your e-mail program's built-in filtering capabilities.

• Filters may catch messages you do want. Rather than automatically deleting filtered messages, set your filters to transfer suspected messages to a special mail folder you have created. Periodically review that folder and transfer any messages you do want back to your Inbox. Delete the remaining messages.

• We highly recommend that you do not use free e-mail services (such as Hotmail and Yahoo) for your primary mailbox. They can significantly increase your chances of receiving even more junk mail. Nothing is really free.

Table of Contents

Filtering for ITS-Supported E-mail Programs

ITS supports four e-mail programs that provide the security you expect and need. Information on creating filters in some of these programs is provided in other documents:

Table of Contents

Filtering for Other E-Mail Programs

We realize that some people prefer to use different e-mail programs — particularly those that come packaged with commercial software — even though they don't provide the security many believe is very important.

Information for activating filters in the more popular unsupported programs follows.

Table of Contents

Additional Resources

Visit ITS's Information System to obtain ITS computer documentation and other resources. A list of relevant documents follows:

• Using mail.umich.edu for E-Mail on the Web (S4297)

We welcome your comments; please send e-mail.

ITS's Online Help Desk provides a variety of computing help resources.

For further help with e-mail issues, send e-mail or phone (734) 764-HELP.

Table of Contents

Information and Technology Services