Eudora Spam Filtering with SpamAssassin™

This document describes how to set up Eudora to divert probable incoming spam e-mail to an alternate "spam" mailbox, using the header tags inserted by the SpamAssassin program running on CIS Unix mail delivery systems. See this document for more information on SpamAssassin.

Please note: the following description assumes Eudora 5.2 running on Microsoft Windows XP. Different versions may work differently, or not at all. In any case, feel free to mail me with problems, suggestions, or questions.

  1. Start up Eudora; choose the "Filters" option from the "Tools" menu.

    choose Filters from the Tools menu

  2. Eudora should bring up a "Filters" window. Click the "New" button in this window's lower left hand corner.

    click the New button

  3. Now it's time to spell out the rule that will divert probable spam away from your "In" mailbox: Make sure the "Incoming" box is checked; type X-MailScanner-SpamScore: into the "Header" box.

    type X-MailScanner-SpamScore into Header box

    Unfortunately the box isn't wide enough to show the whole string. But you should type the whole string, nevertheless. Don't forget the colon (:) at the end.

  4. Make sure the pulldown menu on the following line says "contains"; type sssss (5 s characters) into the text field next to it.

    type Spamscore: ssssss

    The number of s characters make the filtering more or less conservative. Increasing the number of s's will decrease the probability that an innocent message is mistakenly diverted to your spam mailbox, but increase the probability that a spam message is undetected. Conversely, decreasing the number of s's will decrease the probability that spam messages will make it into your normal "In" box, but increase the probability that non-spam mail will be diverted to the spam mailbox. Five s's is a good place to start. You can change it later.

  5. From the "Action" pulldown menu, select the "Transfer To" option.

    specify Transfer To

  6. Click the long button labeled "In", and choose "New..." from the resulting pulldown.

    choose New

    Note that transferring probable-spam messages to the "Trash" is also possible, but not recommended due to the possibility of false positives. Although it's really up to you.

  7. In the resulting mailbox-creation dialog, type a name for your spam box (for example, "Spam"), and press "OK".

    name folder

  8. Close the Filters window by clicking the close box in its upper right corner. Click "Yes" when asked if you want to save changes to Filters.

That's it! Let me know if it doesn't work.

Page Maintenance:
Paul A. Sand <pas@unh.edu>
Last modified: 2012-05-07 9:00 AM EDT
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