Uncomplicated now offers Spam Filtering using SpamAssassin.

Spam or UBE (Unsolicited Bulk Email) has become a serious problem for almost all Internet users. Many users report receiving many times more spam than useful email addresses.

Our server scans the email looking for attributes of junk email and assigns a score for each attribute. If a certain score is reached, the email is labeled as junk, and sent to you with a specific subject line, so that you can set a filter to move or delete the message. Your email is never read by a person, the entire process is automated and no one sees the contents of your email except you.

Below are some of the common questions about spam and spamassassin:

Q: What is "SpamAssassin"?
A: SpamAssassin is software that analyzes incoming mail messages and attempts to determine which are spam and which are not. When it determines a message is spam, it marks it to be easily filtered by your email program.

Q: How accurate is the program?
A: Testing has show it to be up to 95% accurate. However that familiar term "your mileage may vary" applies here. We have seen the program work anywhere from 65 - 90% accurate from our less than scientific testing.

Q: Does it delete spam before I see it?
A: No. For 2 reasons. The filter is not 100% accurate. It may decide an email that you want is spam and mark it as such. You need to be able to see the messages marked as spam to make sure that the occasional "false positive" is found. Second, it lets you know how much spam the filter is catching.

Q: What do I do with all of the spam that I get?
A: You can create a rule in your mail program to dump the spam into a folder, or if you prefer, (although we don’t recommend it) to delete the messages that Spamassassin has marked as spam.

Q: Even though you don’t recommend it, can we choose to have the server delete the mail identified as spam?
A: Yes. You can do so in the control panel for each user. (Did we mention we don’t recommend it?)

Q: What do we do about "False Positives"?
A: Our control panel allows you to add a white list for each email user. You can add as many email addresses to your white list as you like, and spamassassin will not filter these messages.

Q: Can we set different white lists for each user?
A: Yes, the control panel allows each user, (or the person assigned as your administrator) to set the score at which the mail is filtered, the white list, the black list, and if the mail should be deleted or sent to the user.

Q: What does “Training” the spam filter mean?
A: The control panel provides you with a list of email received for each user, where they can identify spam messages that the filter missed. This “trains” the filter to be more accurate by using known spam to identify new spam.

Q: I used the training feature and the spam filter still doesn’t catch the exact message, why?
A: The system does it’s best to catch spam without making mistakes. Its priority is to get mail that you want delivered to you. Training the system on a regular basis will help it become more accurate.

Q: Does the spam filter catch viruses?
A: No. Please use anti-virus software on all of your computers, and keep the definitions up to date.