SpamAssassin (IPP version)/Pegasus Mail Filtering

Original version by Dave Early (http://www.iso.port.ac.uk/docs/user/pegasus-spamassassin.shtml)

1. To set up a filter do the following:

   1. Create a new folder and call it Spam (or anything else of your choice).
   2. Now create a filter to detect the messages marked as spam and move them to the folder you have just created.
      • Click on Tools->Mail filtering rules->Edit new mail filtering rules->Rules applied when folder is opened

        

      • You will see a New mail filtering box, the top of which looks like:

        

        Click on Add Rule

      • In the resultant window click on Expression
      • In the text box at the top of the Edit a regular expession rule page type the following exactly - there is a space between the colon and the first [ and don't forget the * at the end:
      • X-Spam-Level: [*][*][*][*][*][*][*]*

         

        In the "Then do this" section select Action as Move

        Click the Set... button and double click on the name of the folder you created in step 1. The window should look something like:

        

      • Click on OK
   3. If you have other rules in your filter ruleset make this one the first in the list by clicking on the red up arrow at the right hand side until it is at the top.
      The Rule set should look something like this (though you will only have a single entry if you have never used filtering before):

       

      

   4. Click on the Save button to save your new ruleset.

Note that rule above has seven [*] sequences, this is a good default but may not suit you. You can adjust the level of "spamminess" you match by adjusting the number of "[*]" in the rule. If you find that you are still getting too much of what you regard as spam then reduce the number to six and see what results you get and possibly reduce further. On the other hand, if you find the rule filters out too much of what you regard as useful then increase to eight or more. In either case, only increase/decrease in one step intervals and then leave it a few days to see what effect it has.

This completes the process, from now on any new mail that has been flagged as possible spam will be moved into the folder called Spam (or whatever you decided to call it). You should review the contents of this folder regularly to first check that nothing important has been inadvertently marked as spam and secondly to delete the contents of the folder - do not just leave it to accumulate! If you use Pegasus Mail at home then do the same on your installed version of Pegasus Mail there too.