Spam Filter

Staff E-Mail Spam Filter

The Magoffin County Schools Data Network Staff has just implemented a Spam Filter based on Free Software. It is called Spam Assassin and is running on RedHat Linux 9.

What Does It Do?
The Spam Assassin software inspects every e-mail coming in to the Staff e-mail server and determines if it is Spam or not based on a Scoring System. Some of the Tactics it uses to Detect Spam are:

header analysis: spammers use a number of tricks to mask their identities, fool you into thinking they've sent a valid mail, or fool you into thinking you must have subscribed at some stage. SpamAssassin tries to spot these.
text analysis: again, spam mails often have a characteristic style (to put it politely), and some characteristic disclaimers and CYA text. SpamAssassin can spot these, too.
blacklists: SpamAssassin supports many useful existing blacklists, such as mail-abuse.org, ordb.org or others.

It is set up so that when you receive a 'Spam' message the server tags the subject line with "*****SPAM*****" (five asterisks in front, five in back). It also replaces the body of the message with some informative information about why the server thought the message was Spam, and who to contact if there is a problem. It also attaches the original message incase it wasn't spam.

How Does This Benefit Me?
You can set up Microsoft Outlook to automatically delete or move any messages that the server detected as Spam. The following instructions will show you how to do this.

How Do I Set Up Microsoft Outlook To Automatically Delete Spam?

Open Microsoft Outlook.
Click Tools > Rules Wizard.
Click New.
Select "Start From Blank Rule", Then Select Check Messages When They Arrive, Then Click Next.
Check "with specific words in the subject", Then Click the "specific words" hyperlink in the Rule Description Box.
Type "*****SPAM*****" (five asterisks in front, five in back), Next Click "Add", then "Ok".
Make sure your window looks like the one below and then click "Next".
Click "move it to the specified folder", then click the "specified" hyperlink in the "Rule description" box.
Now click the "Deleted Items" folder, then click "Ok".
Make sure your window looks like the one below and then click "Finish".
Click "Ok" again.

That's It!
You will no longer see any mail that the Spam Assassin server detects a Spam.

If you have any further questions contact matt at magoffin dot k12 dot ky dot us (Spam Robot Protection).