Spam Identification Service

SpamAssassin is a "mail filter" that runs on the campus email servers to identify spam. Using its rule base, SpamAssassin applies a wide range of heuristic tests on mail headers and body text to identify "spam", also known as unsolicited commercial email.

All messages that pass through the campus gateway will be scanned for spam. SpamAssassin will analyze the content of the message and assign a score using its rule base. A message with a score of 5 or more will be flagged as spam.

SpamAssassin will insert mail headers that explain the results of the SpamAssassin check (Note: The message headers it adds are not normally displayed by email clients.) Selecting "View Full Headers" or a similar command must be used to view the mail headers.

Spam tagging has been implemented on:

• smtp.ucla.edu

An example of the type of header information that is added by SpamAssassin is as follows:

    X-Probable-Spam: yes
    X-Spam-Hits: 6.8
    X-Spam-Score: ******

By using filtering rules available in most electronic mail clients such as Outlook, Eudora, or Netscape (Outlook Express does not have this capability), users can tailor what to do with messages flagged as spam. Initially, most users will want to move suspected spam into a separate folder. In the future, they may wish to delete spam immediately.

Basic email filter creation - recommended for ALL users

These instructions indicate how to setup a basic filter, in which spam messages scoring a 5 or above are filtered into a "Spam" folder or mailbox.

Windows		Macintosh
	Mozilla		Mozilla
	Eudora		Eudora
	Netscape		Netscape
	Outlook		Mac OS X Mail
	Outlook Express		Outlook Express

Advanced email filter creation

If you feel that the aforementioned filter instructions above are either too sensitive or not sensitive enough to identify spam, you can follow the instructions below to adjust the sensitivity with which your mail client filters spam.

Windows		Macintosh
	Mozilla		Mozilla
	Eudora		Eudora
	Netscape		Netscape
	Outlook		Mac OS X Mail
			Outlook Express