====== Managing Junk Mail ======

See also **[[quick_guide:mailcleaner|MailCleaner Quick Guide]]**

This page is about **how to minimize the junk** e-mail (spam) flowing into your Inbox...the **methodology** rather than application-specific instructions.

Please keep in mind that **valid senders** (including mass-mailers such as MailChimp™ or Constant Contact™) who distribute both desired and undesirable mail, **will always make it through filters**.  This is as it should be, but **requires users to perform 'mailing list management'**.

===== Do You Have a Professional Filter Service? =====

If you do not have a **professional spam filtering service**, you are 'going to a gunfight without a gun'.  You can do it, but the results may not be...satisfying.

**We offer very cost-effective filtering options**, starting at $1.30/month/mailbox at the time of this writing.

===== For Users =====

<note important>If you have a professional filter service then you probably have **two filters** you need to be aware of.  **Your mail client (like Outlook) probably has its own filter mechanism** that works on the mail already passed by the professional filter service.  If you have problems with mail landing in a **Local Junk or Junkmail folder**, the issue is probably with your mail client.</note>

<note important>In **Outlook**, click the **Junk** button on the ribbon bar and select **Junk E-Mail Options**. You'll find the **whitelist on the Safe Senders and Safe Recipients tabs**. Blacklisted senders are on the **Blocked Senders tab**.</note>

In order:

  - When a message comes in, users should **evaluate whether the sender is valid** (not to to be confused with undesirable).  **Verify an 'unsubscribe' link is present** in the message.  Valid senders **must include** opt-out (unsubscribe) links in their messages.
  - If the **sender is completely evil**...**do not attempt to unsubscribe**.  You might just be confirming your address to a spammer.  Generally, this is not the case because **truly evil crap is almost completely filtered anyway**.
  - If the **sender is valid**, **unsubscribe** from the list.  **This is very important**.  If this is not done, **that particular junk will never stop**.  Unfortunately, there can be a significant **time delay** between 'unsubscribing' and when that particular junk actually stops.
  - After you 'unsubscribe', **mark the message as junk/spam in your mail client** (like Zimbra Web Client or Outlook).  That will help **route the junk to your local Junk folder** until the unsubscribed list actually stops sending junk.
  - For **persistent junk only**, we can **blacklist specific senders, entire sender domains, or even legitimate mass-mailers**.  I recommend keeping your blacklist to a minimum.
  - If a user **does not receive an expected message**, **whitelist the sender** and try again before contacting technical support.

===== For Administrators =====

For users of our professional spam filtering services, **we have three 'levels' to 'play in'**:

==== Provider Level ====

We can **whitelist or blacklist at the top level, affecting all our customers**.  We do this carefully, as one man's spam is another man's ham.  But **tweaks made at this level are very efficient**.  We cannot blacklist valid mass-mailers here without running into 'torches and pitchforks'.

==== Domain Level ====

You/we can **whitelist or blacklist at the domain level, affecting all of that domain's recipients**.  Tweaks made at this level are also **fairly efficient**, but they require an admin to participate.

We can assign client-administrators on our professional services who can do this, but we often make these domain-level adjustments on behalf of our customers.

**You can decide just how aggressive you want to be**, even blacklisting mass-mailers if you so choose.  **The more control exerted at the Provider and Domain levels, the less junk individual users must deal with.**

==== User Level ====

**Individual users do the majority of whitelist or blacklist operations, affecting just that user.**

Manual whitelist/blacklist operations are tedious to perform, so we mostly do them as the last resort.

Having individual users perform whitelist or blacklist operations takes employee time away from their 'real job', but can save time in the long run...a mixed blessing.