Login
IT's spam filtering system works by scanning incoming email for spam before it gets delivered to your email Inbox. The filter automatically deletes messages that meet the necessary criteria including sender reputation, email characteristics and various other characteristics. If the message is suspect, the spam filter will simply place the item in quarantine. Legitimate messages are then delivered successfully to your inbox.
In addition to the filtering on the server, individual accounts may configured spam filtering from within webmail.smu.edu or other email clients. These filters supplement the server side filter to provide greater protection from spam.
About the Quarantine
Faculty, Staff and Students may review the items diverted to their SMU quarantine folder at any time via spam.smu.edu. Items can be released from the quarantine individually. Also, specific addresses or senders can be added to a whitelist within the Quarantine. Subsequent messages sent from those specific addresses or senders, will then bypass the filter rules and be delivered succesfully. Messages are stored in quarantine for 30 days.
How effective are the Filters
The current spam filter actually deletes about 90% of the total emails sent from the internet to the SMU mail servers. Although an occasional spam message may reach your inbox, the filter is very effective in minimizing this occurance.
Adding an address to the Safe List or Block List
You can quickly add an address to the block list or safe list within the Spam quarantine. This will affect any messages from that individual for your account only. Simply login to the quarantine (spam.smu.edu) and click on Options in the top right corner. Click Safe list if you wish to mark a particular sender as safe, or block list if you wish to block emails from an individual. Senders added to the safe list will bypass the spam filters completely and be delivered to your inbox. Any messages from a blocked sender will be trapped in quarantine and will not be released to your inbox.
Reporting Spam
Occasionally, unsolicited spam email messages may get through our filters, which use sender reputation scores as one of the filtering criteria to block spam. If you would like to report spam which has reached your SMU inbox, please forward a copy of the message as an attachment to spam@smu.edu .
Please note that only messages which are sent as an attachment can be analyzed, as this method keeps the email header intact. This allows OIT to send pertinent data on to our anti-spam vendor, who will use it to influence the sender’s reputation score.
To forward a message as an attachment, please use one of the following methods:
- In Webmail, right-click the message and select “Send As Attachment”.
- In Microsoft Outlook, select the message (single-click) and press the combination Ctrl-Alt-f on your keyboard.