Email Spam Filter

You can block an e-mail using spam filters. There are many definitions of spam, but one particularly useful one is the following:

Spam is the electronic version of junk mail, and has been around since the Internet was created. E-mail filters are a way of filtering your e-mail to remove unwanted mail based on a variety of criteria. You can block any sort of e-mail, not just mail of a commercial nature. Blocked mail can be deleted automatically or sent to another e-mail address or script. These filters are quite flexible - some examples are provided after the instruction on how to add a spam filter below. All filters are cumulative.

1. Login to your Hosting control panel



2. Click on the 'Block Mail' link in the Mail area.
   NOTE: You can also enable Spam Assassin for extra protection. Click on 'Spam Assassin' under your Hosting control panel.



3. Click on the Add Filter link.



4. Click on the required header field in the first drop-down list. These are the various fields in any e-mail message.



5. Click on the required filter action in the second drop-down list. This action will act on the text entered in the third field.
   • equals - match the text exactly (whole words only). "Credit" will block "Credit".
   • matches regex - matches the text based on regular expression (regex) rules. Regular expressions are a powerful but complex area. You do not need to use regular expression filters for most circumstances.
   • contains - match the specified text in any circumstance. "porn" will block "porn" and "pornography".
   • begins with - match the specified text when it is the beginning of a word. "porn" will block "porn" and "pornography" but not "teenporn".



6. Enter the filter text in the third field. This text is case sensitive.



7. Enter the destination for the filtered e-mail in the Destination field. There are three separate types of destination:
   • Destroy the e-mail - Enter Discard in the field.
   • Redirect to another address - Enter the e-mail address to which to redirect the e-mail.
   • Redirect to a script - Enter the full script path on the machine that hosts your web site.



8. Click on the Activate button.
   
   Example:
   
   
   • To redirect all e-mail from "john@paradise.net.au", enter: From, equals, john@paradise.net.au, david@corse.org.au
   • To delete all e-mail from paradise.net, enter: From, contains, paradise.net, Discard
   • To delete all references to pornography, enter: Any Header, contains, porn, Discard
   • To discard all e-mail that Spam Assassin has marked as spam, enter: SpamAssassin Spam Header, begins with, yes, Discard