Question:

Answer:

The best way to avoid unwanted e-mail (often known as spam) is to protect the privacy of your e-mail address. This article offers a tactic for filtering unwanted messages once your address has become known to those who send mass mailings. This technique takes advantage of header information added by Virginia Tech's spam identification system. For information about other techniques for handling unwanted messages, see Receiving Unwanted E-mail Messages (http://www.answers.vt.edu/ask4help/email/vtkb1064.htm)

The Virginia Tech mail servers tag all incoming e-mail that they suspect to be unsolicited messages (also known as spam) with a special header string beginning with "X-Junkmail" or "X-JunkMail". To filter messages with this header, create a new folder. Then, using the Message Filters tool, create a rule that puts all messages with "X-Junkmail" and "X-JunkMail" in the header into that folder. To do this:

To filter unwanted messages:

1. Start OS X Mail.
2. Create a new mailbox.
   • In Mac OS X v 10.3: From the Mailbox menu, select New.
   • In Mac OS X v 10.4: From the Mailbox menu, select New Mailbox.
3. From the Location drop-down list, select On My Mac.
4. In the Name text box, type: Junkmail
5. Click OK.
6. From the Mail menu, select Preferences.
7. Click the Rules icon.
8. Click the Add Rule button.
9. In the Description text box, type: Junkmail Rule
10. Under If Any of the Following Conditions Are Met, from the first drop-down list, select Edit Header List.
11. In the Header text box, type: X-Junkmail
12. Click the Add Header button.
13. In the Header text box, type: X-JunkMail
14. Click the Add Header button.
15. Click OK.
16. From the first drop-down list, select X-Junkmail.
17. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
18. In the text box, type: UCE
19. Click the Plus button.
20. In the new set of lists, from the first drop-down list, select X-Junkmail.
21. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
22. In the text box, type: RBL
23. Click the Plus button.
24. In the new set of lists, from the first drop-down list, select X-Junkmail.
25. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
26. In the text box, type: Blacklisted
27. Click the Plus button.
28. In the new set of lists, from the first drop-down list, select X-JunkMail.
29. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
30. In the text box, type: UCE
31. Click the Plus button.
32. In the new set of lists, from the first drop-down list, select X-JunkMail.
33. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
34. In the text box, type: RBL
35. Click the Plus button.
36. In the new set of lists, from the first drop-down list, select X-JunkMail.
37. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
38. In the text box, type: Blacklisted
39. Under Perform the Following Actions, from the first drop-down list:
• In OS X Mail for Mac OS X v 10.3, select Transfer Message.
• In OS X Mail for Mac OS X v 10.4, select Move Message.
40. Under Perform the Following Actions, from the second drop-down list:
• In OS X Mail for Mac OS X v 10.3, select Junkmail.
• In OS X Mail for Mac OS X v 10.4, go to On My Mac, then select Junkmail.
41. Click OK.
42. Close the Rules window.