pop spam filtering for yahoo bizmail
if you are using yahoo! business mail and accessing it using a pop client instead of a browser, here’s a tidbit i found buried in the yahoo! groups help section.
apparently, yahoo has spamguard enabled in business mail accounts with pop-only access. yahoo! adds an additional header information to mails that spamguard thinks are spam. the header name is X-YahooFilteredBulk with an ip address beside it.
you can then create a filter in your pop client to look for that header in an incoming message and then move it to a folder you specify.
i have only tried this successully using outlook (as shown below). it appears that outlook express and thunderbird 1.5.0.4 rules/filters cannot be configured to look for a specific header name. well, not yet anyway. i still have to try it with eudora.
first, in the folder list of outlook create a folder named bulk or spam or junk. your choice. please excuse the screen shots. i do not use outlook and i had to borrow another workstation with outlook installed.
right-click on outlook today then click on new folder.
next screen you’ll see is a dialog box asking for a name for the new folder. i chose to name it bulk:
click on ok and then you’ll see a folder named bulk in your outlook folder list.
next, create a rule that will look for the phrase X-YahooFilteredBulk in an e-mail and then move the e-mail to the bulk folder you just created. to call up the rules wizard, click on tools - rules wizard and you’ll see the following dialog box:
click on new and you’ll see the following. look for “move messages based on content” and highlight by clicking on it. you will then see the rule description get filled:
click on the second underlined word — in this case its the word “specified“. you will then see the following:
click on bulk and then click ok. you will be taken back to the previous screen but you’ll notice the word “specified” has now been replaced with the word bulk.
next, we’ll create the actual rule by clicking on the first link — “specific words“. you will then see the following:
since we’re not looking for specific words in the subject or body of the e-mail, uncheck that option and scroll down and look for the option “with specific words in the header” and check that. in the rule description, click on “specific words”:
now you will see a prompt for the words you’re looking for. type in “X-YahooFilteredBulk” (without the quotes of course) and click on ok.
you will then the next screen.
click on finish and you’ll see the following
just make sure that the new rule is checked and then click on ok. and you’re done. the next time you download your yahoo! bizmail, all mail marked as spam by yahoo! will go to the bulk folder.
if you’re asking why not just dump it directly to the trash, well, not everything is perfect and once in a while spamguard plus makes a mistake so dumping the e-mails marked as spam into the bulk folder give you and opportunity to scan it for e-mails that are not suppose to be spam.
