Spam Folder

[wigoweb]

I host several sites through Total Choice on my semi-dedicated account.

 

Spam Assassin is doing a pretty good job, with default settings, of catching most of the spam.

 

One of our sites attacts about 220MB of spam each month.

 

So, about every two weeks, I get a warning message from Total Choice about disk usage. When this happens, I FTP into the site and delete the spam folder which will have 100+ MB of messages.

 

I was looking at some of the advice and suggestions on the Help page this morning and noticed the following:

 

 ================================  

Automatically discard spam email

The above instructions can also be used to automatically delete email messages flagged by SPAM ASSASSIN as spam:

Click on E-Mail Filtering, then Add Filter

 

In the first drop down box, select "Spam Assassin Spam Header"

 

In the second drop down box, select "contains"

 

In the third box, enter: *****SPAM*****

 

Click Discard, then Activate, then Go Back

 ================================  

 

Does this mean that the spam messages don't go into the spam folder, but that they are just vaporized so that I don't need to empty the spam folder any longer?

 

I would like to implement the above procedures if they eliminate the spam folder. I am reluctant to just experiment without asking as this client is one of our more active users of their email accounts and I know they would be upset if I made changes that affected their email. Several of the accounts are for the corporate attorneys and I certainly do not want to upset those folks.

[Virtual Imager]

I'd check with your clients first... sometimes 'real' mail ends up in the spam folder. If they regularly go in and check their spam folder to make sure there's nothing important in there, they may not want to have spam deleted untill they've had a chance to look at it.

 

If you are confident that Spam Assasin is catching only spam, then implementing the above procedure is a good idea provided someone else comes along and confirms that it means what you think it means, i.e. that the spam messages don't go into the spam folder, but that they are just vaporized so that you don't need to empty the spam folder any longer. I can't answer that question... I'm just posting to let you know that the attorneys and others might want the option of checking to make sure SA hasn't flagged something erroneously. I know that in my accounting office we check the spam folder regularly and would never allow stuff to be deleted without us confirming that it is indeed spam.

 

If it were me hosting their site, I'd give them the option to review the folder, empty it as needed (warning them two days ahead of time that it will be emptied), and charge them a little more for my trouble....

 

VI

[wigoweb]

That's good advice. Several of the employees were quite offended by the content of some of the spam and wouldn't even check their email until we implemented Spam Assassin.

 

I will check with the organization and see if anyone there wants to check the spam account in their email. I doubt that they would want us to check it as we might read something too "confidential" for an outsider to see.

 

Thanks