UMW Spam Filter

What is spam?

Some people and businesses indiscriminately send large amounts of unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE), also known as "spam", meant to promote a product or service. Spam is the electronic equivalent of junk “snail” mail sent to 'Current Resident'.  In recent years spam content has expanded to include offensive advertising, malicious content, and computer viruses.
 

What steps has the University taken to reduce unwanted e-mail?

1. Infrastructure Services maintains an enterprise spam classification system designed to allow easy filtering of unwanted content.  The system identifies messages that are most likely spam by tagging the subject lines of the messages with [SPAM?] and lets you control how you would like to deal with these messages.
2. You can create a rule in your email account to automatically move the tagged messages to a particular folder (usually the "junk" folder). This will allow you to examine the emails for "false positives" or "false negatives" (explained below).

Will these spam options be available if I forward my e-mail to another address?

If you forward to a non @umw.edu address, e-mail identified by the system as spam will still be labeled as spam.

What steps can be used to keep my address safe?

• Do not provide your e-mail address to any companies or web pages you do not trust.  It is a good idea to read their "privacy statement" as well to see how your contact information will be used.
• Make sure your e-mail address doesn't appear on any web pages (e.g. search the web for your address).
• Start using spam filtering by following the instructions provided above.
• Delete spam messages without reading them.  Many messages include web links to "phone home" to track active accounts.
• Do not respond to removal links or reply with "remove" to these messages.  This is another technique used to verify e-mail addresses.
   

What if an email I receive is identified as spam, but it isn’t? What if I am getting spam that is not being identified?

False Positives are messages that are NOT spam but were classified as spam by the e-mail system.  These are very rare and usually are messages sent through electronic newsletters or to large numbers of recipients.
False Negatives are messages that ARE spam but were not classified as spam by the e-mail system.  People that send out spam are constantly looking for ways to get around spam filtering systems.  These are more common.

How do I report False Positives?

We are very concerned with False Positives and it is very easy to report these to us by e-mail at HelpDesk@umw.edu. Place the words "False Positive" in the subject line along with the following information:

• Sender and recipient e-mail addresses
• Date and time the message was sent
• Subject of the message

If the message is being forwarded to another address, we will need the info from your college email account, not the outside email system.

How do I report False Negatives?

To report a false negative first verify the message was not received because you were subscribed to an electronic newsletter. If the message is not sent to you because of an electronic newsletter subscription, you will need forward the e-mail to HelpDesk@umw.edu with the full spam message including the message headers. Simply forwarding the message does not allow us to collect enough information to correct the situation. Place the words "False Negative" in the subject line.

If the message is being forwarded to another address, we will need the info from your college email account, not the outside email system.

Where Do I Find Message Headers In My E-Mail?

GroupWise:

To forward GroupWise email headers to the email administrators do the following:

1. Open the email message in Groupwise.
2. Click the "View" button. The View button looks like a pair of eyeglasses.
3. Right click the file named Mime.822 and save the file to your computer. Once you have saved it, change the filename. You MUST change the name of the file before sending it to us. A name similar to "spam-mime.822" will work fine.
4. Send an email to HelpDesk@umw.edu with the Mime.822 file attached and the sender and recipient e-mail addresses, date and time the message was sent and the subject of the message. Place the words "False Negative" in the subject line of your email to the HelpDesk@umw.edu.

If you are using GroupWise Web Mail (web access) do the following to forward the headers:

1. Open the message.
2. Click the "Save As" text on the message beside the Mime.822 file.
   Save the file to your computer. Once you have saved it, change the filename. You MUST change the name of the file before sending it to us. A name similar to "spam-mime.822" will work fine.
3. Send an email with the Mime.822 file attached and the subject of  "False Negative" along with sender and recipient e-mail addresses, date and time the message was sent and the subject of the message to HelpDesk@umw.edu.
   
    

Listed below are email applications that are not directly supported by the University IT department.

Outlook Express: In the mail folder, right click on the message and select properties. Click on the details tab and then click on message source. You will need to copy and paste the headers into the message before you forward it to HelpDesk@umw.edu.

Outlook 98: First double click on the message to open it. Then select the "View" drop down menu and "Options".  Look for internet headers. You will need to copy and paste the headers into a new message and send it to HelpDesk@umw.edu.

Outlook 2000: You can follow the instruction for Outlook 98 or right click on the message and select options. Then look for internet headers and copy and paste the headers into the message before you forward it to HelpDesk@umw.edu.

Netscape: First double click on the message to open it. Then select the "View" drop down menu, then "Headers" and "All".  Then you can forward the message to HelpDesk@umw.edu.

Pegasus: Double click on the message to open it. Then select the "Reader" drop down menu and click on "Show All Headers" and forward the message to HelpDesk@umw.edu.

Pine: In pine, you can simply type "h" for headers and then forward the message to HelpDesk@umw.edu. If you receive a message that "h" is not defined, then you will need to type "m" to return to the main menu, then "s" for setup.  Then type "c" for config and arrow down to the option "enable-full-header-cmd". Type "x" to enable this option. Then type "e" to exit, answer 'yes' to save your changes, and the "h" command will work.

Eudora: First double click on the message to open it. Then click the button that explains the message and forward the message to HelpDesk@umw.edu.

For other unsupported e-mail clients that are not listed here, refer to the help features of that application.