Dealing with Spam (Junk Mail)
Spam refers to unsolicited email messages sent to recipients via the Internet. These messages may be offensive (e.g. pornographic), fraudulent (e.g. requests for money) or just a nuisance (e.g. bulk mailings advertising a particular service). Spam is not targeted at you personally. In all likelihood the sender of the spam has found your email address by trawling existing lists on the Internet or by ‘harvesting’ addresses from legitimate sources. Sometimes email addresses are simply guessed. You should not be embarrassed to receive spam – everyone else is receiving it as well. Information Services implements a set of centrally applied rules to prevent such unsolicited email from being delivered to addresses at the University and to prevent our system from being used to relay such mail to other sites. The various measures in place prevent a large proportion of unsolicited email from getting through. However, if your address has made its way onto a 'spammers' list you may continue to be plagued by such email. Some messages may be extremely offensive but if you receive such email it is vital that you do not attempt to reply to them or otherwise contact the originators. The most effective action you can take is to delete these messages.
Phishing
There is a particularly nasty form of spam called Phishing. Here emails are constructed in a way that attempts to fool the recipient into believing that the message is from a bona fide source such as Information Services or a bank. This is accompanied by some sort of scaremongering such as 'your account has been compromised', and a request for details such as username and password. Anyone receiving such a message should delete it immediately. If you do reply to such an email, you will need to change your password as soon as possible. If you need any assistance please contact the Helpdesk on extension 3760 or by email at advisory@qub.ac.uk. For future reference, please be aware that Information Services would never ask for your username/password details via email. More generally, banks, building societies and other reputable organisations that conduct business online (Amazon, eBay, etc) will never ask for your username/password details via email.
Handling Spam with Outlook and Outlook Web Access
A software package called SpamAssassin runs on the Queen’s mail hubs rejecting huge volumes of emails which are obvious spam. All other emails, some of which may be spam, are delivered to the Mailbox of the appropriate recipient. You can use settings in Outlook and Outlook Web Access (OWA) to manage your emails and direct spam to a folder called "Junk E-mail" rather than to your Inbox. However, you need to balance the volume of spam that you receive against the possibility of valid emails being directed incorrectly to the "Junk E-mail" folder. You may decide to allow all emails to go to your Inbox and then delete what you know to be spam.
You are advised to delete what is definitely spam from the "Junk E-mail" folder.
There are certain settings which are common to Outlook and OWA, and when set in one are also in force in the other.
Safe Senders
In Safe Senders, you can list individual users (e.g. a.baker@oldschool.ac.uk ) or domains (e.g. oldschool.ac.uk for all users with this string after the @ symbol in their email address) whose emails are not considered to be spam and are delivered to the Inbox .
Note that emails with a bona fide Queen’s email address on the To: field will not be considered as spam.
Blocked Senders
In Blocked Senders, you can list users and domains whose emails are considered to be spam and are to be delivered to the Junk E-mail folder.
Safe Recipients
Safe Recipients are generally defined when emails are sent to a mailing list (e.g. updates@research.ac.uk ) and thus have something other than the individual’s email address on the To: field; otherwise these emails are considered to be spam and are to be delivered to the Junk E-mail folder.
International (Outlook Only)
You can select from a list of domains (such as US for the United States) to specify that emails with this string in the domain are considered to be spam and are to be delivered to the Junk E-mail folder. You can also select from a list of languages (such as Latin) to be treated in a similar manner.
Configuring Outlook 2003/2007 (see also Configuring on the Fly below)
Start Outlook and, from the Actions menu, select Junk E-mail and then Junk E-mail Options.
Under the Options tab, ensure that the button to the left of the following string is checked: "No Automatic Filtering" option
If there are values that you wish to enter as Safe Senders, Safe Recipients or Blocked Senders, you can select the corresponding tab, click on Add, key in the values in the formats described above and then click on Apply and OK.
N.B. you can highlight and Remove values which have been entered erroneously.
You can also select the International tab and configure your International settings.
Configuring Outlook Web Access (see also Configuring on the Fly below)
- Start Outlook Web Access and click Options on the right-hand side of the OWA banner.
- Select Junk E-mail from the list on the left-hand side.
- Ensure that the button to the left of the following string is checked: Automatically filter junk email.
If there are values that you wish to enter as Safe Senders, Safe Recipients or Blocked Senders, you can move to the corresponding pane, click on Add and key in the values in the formats described above. Click on the Save icon on the top bar to confirm your settings.
N.B. you can highlight and Remove values which have been entered erroneously.
Configuring on the Fly
It is possible to update Outlook and OWA spam settings based on details in emails which you have already received. The determination of what constitutes spam is not an exact science. Sometimes what is clearly spam to the naked eye can appear in the Inbox while valid emails can be directed to the Junk E-mail folder (False Positive).
Outlook
With any email that you receive, you can right-click on the header (i.e. close the message if you have opened it), s elect Junk E-mail and choose from the list:
- Add Sender to Blocked Senders List;
- Add Sender to Safe Senders List;
- Add Sender’s Domain to Safe Senders List;
- Add Recipient to Safe Recipients List.
OWA
With any email that you receive, you can right-click on the header (i.e. close the message if you have opened it), s elect Junk E-mail and choose from the list:
- Add Sender to Blocked Senders List;
- Add Sender to Safe Senders List;
- Add Sender’s Domain to Safe Senders List.
Dealing with False Positives (in Outlook and OWA)
In order to move (non-spam) messages from the Junk E-mail folder to the Inbox:
- Right-click on the message header;
- Select Junk E-mail;
- Select Mark as Not Junk ;
When the confirmation window is displayed, click OK if you want all future emails from this sender to be accepted as valid. If you uncheck the box beside “Always trust email from...", the current message will be moved but there is no guarantee how future emails from this sender will be handled.
