Automatic Spam Filtering in UAlbany Mail
- Heaton, Brian
- Grosshandler, Mike
- Trubitt, Lisa V
- Lyons, Andrew H
Description
Messages coming into the UAlbany Mail system pass through Microsoft's Exchange Online Protection (EOP) first to combat spam and phishing. EOP evaluates each message by considering several factors and adds a spam confidence level (SCL) value to the header of every email message. Here is an example spam score that might be added to the header:
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-SCL: 1
The SCL value can range from -1 to 9. Higher numbers indicate a higher confidence that the message is spam. Based on the SCL value, the mail system will handle the message as follows:
SCL Score | Message Delivery |
|---|---|
-1 | The message was sent from within the UAlbany Mail system or a domain that has been safelisted for all of UAlbany Mail, such as listserv.albany.edu and NY Alert, and is delivered to the Inbox of the intended recipient(s). |
0, 1 | The message is delivered to the Inbox of the intended recipient(s). |
5, 6 | Likely Spam - the message is delivered to the Junk E-mail folder of the intended recipient(s) unless you have added the sender's address to your mailbox's Safe Senders list. |
9 | High Confidence Spam - the message is delivered to the Junk E-mail folder of the intended recipient(s) unless you have added the sender's address to your mailbox's Safe Senders list. |
SCL ratings of 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8 are not used by the service. An SCL rating of 5 or 6 is considered suspected spam, which is less certain to be spam than an SCL rating of 9, which is considered certain spam.
If you have Outlook installed on your computer and are using Outlook to read your mail, then there is additional spam filtering activity performed by Outlook on your computer - not the UAlbany Mail system. When Outlook is running, it will also use its own spam filtering guidelines and move some mail into your Junk E-mail folder even if the UAlbany Mail system delivered the message to your Inbox. Since Outlook may sometimes behave more aggressively than UAlbany Mail in moving mail to the Junk E-mail folder, be sure to check that folder regularly.
Instructions
The spam filtering behavior in UAlbany Mail is automatic and enabled by default.
If you find that legitimate mail is being delivered to your Junk E-mail folder, you may add that sender's email address to your Safe Senders list to prevent that from happening again. If you are still not satisfied with the type of mail getting moved to your Junk E-mail folder, we recommend that you turn off the additional spam filtering provided within Outlook.