Email Rule Setup for Plesk Spam Filter

Many of our clients use the Plesk hosting platform for their email and webpages. One difference between the Plesk email and our other email servers is that the spam filter on the Plesk machines does not automatically move spam emails into a different folder. Rather, it gives the user the choice between deleting messages tagged as spam automatically or rewriting the subject line of the message with the term *****SPAM****** inserted. We feel that it is never advisable to have a piece of software delete your emails before you have the ability to view them, so we usually recommend that our customers go with the latter option of having a spam tag inserted into the subject of their messages. Any recent email client program comes with the ability to filter your email based upon conditions that you define - this is one way that you can then take messages tagged as spam and move them into a folder other than your inbox. This way, you do not have to view the spam messages unless there is some concern that a message was incorrectly tagged - at which point you could look at your spam messages and retrieve the message that might have otherwise been deleted. Below you will find instructions on setting up mail rules for some of the more popular email clients:

Outlook Express

1.

On the Tools menu, point to Message Rules, and then click Mail.

2.

To create a new, blank rule, click the New button.

3.

To create a new rule based on an existing rule, select a rule and click the Copy button.

4.

Use the Modify button to change an existing rule.

5.

In Outlook Express, you will select the condition "Where the Subject line contains specific words" and the Action "Move it to the specified folder" The specific word will be *****SPAM***** and the folder can be called whatever you would like - "Spam" or "Junk" are popular choices.

Microsoft Outlook

1. If necessary, open your Inbox
2. From the Tools menu, select Rules and Alerts...
   The Rules and Alerts dialog box appears.
3. Select the E-mail Rules tab
4. Click NEW RULE
   The Rules Wizard dialog box appears.
   
5. Select Start from a blank rule and Apply this rule after the message arrives then click next
   
6. From this point the procedure is the same as Outlook Express, you will select the condition of "Specific Words in the subject" and specify the term "*****SPAM*****" and "Move it to the specified folder" as the action, with the specified folder being one that you create with the name "Junk or "Spam" or whatever name you prefer.
   

Mac OS X 10.2.x and later

1. From the Mail menu, choose Preferences... .
   
   
2. At the top of the window that opens, click Rules.

   Note: In OS X 10.3.x, the junk mail filter is a separate option and is not part of Mail rules. This is different from previous versions of Mail. To adjust the junk mail filter, select Junk Mail instead of Rules.

3. Click the Add Rule button. To modify an existing rule, select it from the list, then click Edit.
   
   
4. A sheet will appear. In the "Description:" field, you can name the rule "Spam" or something similar. This can be anything you want.
   
   
5. From the pull-down menu directly underneath the description, you can select to have any or all of the conditions be requirements for Mail to perform the action(s) you specify for this rule. Selecting any means that even if other conditions are not met, Mail will still perform the action; selecting all means that if the conditions are not all met, Mail will not perform the action.
   
   
6. In the field just below the conditions statement, you can set the criteria you would like Mail to use in order to identify messages - in this case, you will be using the criterion of the subject containing the term *****SPAM*****.
7. From the pull-down menu under "Perform the following actions:", select the action you wish to have Mail perform on each message - in this case, you will want the messages moved to a different folder that you will create, such as "Spam" or "Junk" or whatever name you prefer.
8. Click OK to save your rule.