Spam Control
Spam control attempts to separate unsolicited commercial e-mail (aka "spam") from legitimate e-mail messages.
Still Receiving Junk Mail?
Spam filtering is not perfect, so you will still receive some junk mail, but hopefully not much. As spam detection technology improves, the senders of spam adapt to ensure that you still receive their messages! Usually a new technique only lasts for a while before the filters adapt to detect the new messages. You should still be careful, though. If a message looks suspicious, it probably is not legitimate.
Lose a Message?
Spam filters try to identify spam by examining messages and seeing if they "look like junk". Occasionally a legitimate e-mail message will look like junk and be mistakenly placed in your junk mail folder. For this reason it is important to check your junk mail folder periodically for messages that should not have been marked as spam, especially if you are expecting a message that you have not received!
Messages that are left in the junk mail folder are automatically deleted by the system after 10 days.
If a message was put in your junk mail folder by mistake, you can select it and press the "Not Junk" button in the toolbar. Outlook will move the message back into your inbox, and help you avoid the problem in the future by placing that sender in your "Safe Senders List". Messages from people in this list will always be delivered to you, no matter how "spam-like" the message appears! In addition to placing individual people in this list, you may also place entire organizations (called "domains") into the list.
If you wish to ensure that no Case e-mail is ever sent to your junk mail folder, you should add "@case.edu" to your safe senders list. You should be aware that a large volume of true junk mail does appear to come from case.edu addresses, so this may increase the amount of spam you receive in your inbox.
Spam Settings in Outlook
Outlook includes a number of options for configuring the way it identifies and handles spam e-mails. These instructions will walk you through configuring those settings.
- Select the "Actions" menu in Outlook and then select the "Junk Email Options" from the Junk Mail submenu.
- The first time you edit the Junk Mail Options a warning box will inform you that Junk Mail filters are only available in Cached Exchange Mode. This message can be safely ignored. Check the box next to "Please do not show me this message again," and click OK.
- The Options tab allows you to change how aggressively Outlook will filter Junk Mail. A more aggressive setting will send more spam mail directly to the Junk Email folder, but also increases the possibility of a legitimate e-mail being marked as junk.
- The "Safe Senders," "Safe Recipients," and "Blocked Senders" tabs allow you to set certain e-mail addresses as 'safe' or junk. An e-mail from an address on your Safe Senders list will never be treated as junk mail, while mail from an address on your blocked senders list will always be treated as junk mail.
Mirapoint Filtering
Most incoming mail also goes through a university filter that marks messages based on the likelihood that a particular message is spam. Our server generally does not use this information when checking for spam, and in testing we have found that it puts too many messages in your junk mail. Learn more about the Case Mirapoint spam filter and how to automatically move items into your junk mail folder.