Forestry Helpdesk · Help with Spam

Dealing with spam

Is spam e-mail landing in your inbox? It's a common annoyance and you're certainly not alone! Look at the following list of tips and configuration options to make sure that you are doing all that you can to get spam to land in your Junk E-Mail folder and not your inbox.

If you have questions about any of the tips below, please contact the Forestry Helpdesk at 737-2152.

Tips for minimizing spam inconvenience

If you don't already have a rule for it, have Outlook move suspected spam to your Junk E-Mail folder:
- In Outlook, go to Tools > Rules and Alerts...
- On the Email Rules tab, click the "Options" button
- Click "Import Rules..."
- Look in Q:\Resources\Email\ and import Spam_Rules.rwz
- Click OK to return to viewing Rules.
- Click on the "X-Spam Flag Yes" rule in the upper pane. In the lower pane that contains the Rule Description, click on the link that reads "specified folder" and set it to your Junk E-Mail folder.
- Click on the "X-Spam Level: ** " rule in the upper pane. In the lower pane that contains the Rule Description, click on the link that reads "specified folder " and set it to your Junk E-Mail folder.
Use Outlook 2003 as your e-mail client. This version works with the Intelligent Messaging Filter we have installed on the Exchange mail server.
Don't forget to glance through your Junk E-mail folder before you empty it. It's always possible that legitimate e-mail could wind up there.
Right-click your Junk E-mail folder and choose "Empty Junk E-mail folder". That permanently deletes the spam from your mailbox.
Some spam is directed to old e-mail addresses (those ending in orst.edu or fsl.orst.edu. The helpdesk can work with you to remove those old e-mail addresses from use.

Spam FAQ

The university receives about 1.5 million e-mails per day.

89% of that is blocked as spam and never shows up in mailboxes.

7% is tagged as possible spam, but is not blocked. Use Tip #1 above to deal with the 7%.
An e-mail addresses posted on a public web page is the most common way a person winds up on a spammer's list. Try googling your e-mail address to see if your e-mail address list can be "harvested" by a spammer.
There are ways to obfuscate an e-mail address on a web page so it can't be harvested...ask the Forestry Computing helpdesk how this can be done.