What is the Spam Catcher?

Mailshell's advanced spam-filtering technology rates incoming email based on the probability that it is spam, using proprietary spam-filtering technology in addition to standard anti-spam techniques. Each message is checked against known good commercial senders, known black-listed spammers, common spam signatures, users' responses, and other criteria to compute the likelihood that it is spam. The system also relies on a robust, proprietary White List of more than 10,000 known legitimate commercial senders to ensure that legitimate email passes through without compromising overall filtering.

The Spam Catcher lets you choose the level of filtering Mailshell uses on incoming messages; each level offers a different trade-off between the likelihood that spam messages will be caught and the likelihood of also catching non-spam messages. There are five different levels:

• None blocks no spam.



• Lenient blocks only the most easily identified spam. Most incoming email will be delivered normally, but a significant amount of spam may be allowed through.



• Moderate blocks likely spam. This level will let fewer spam messages through, but may catch a few non-spam messages as well.



• Aggressive blocks possible spam. This level will let the least number of spam messages through, but will also catch more non-spam messages.



• Exclusive blocks all messages except those coming from the specific email addresses or domains that you have listed as Address Book contacts or Approved Senders.

If you have a stronger setting, be sure to regularly review messages that have been filtered out. If spam is being saved in your Junk folder, use the "Not Junk" button to indicate which messages should not have been filtered out. Adding addresses to your Address Book or Approved Senders list will prevent them from being caught in the future.

You can edit your general Spam Catcher settings in the Spam Catcher Settings section of Spam Filtering, edit the setting for your @mailshell.com address (if you have one) by clicking the address name in the Spam Filtering Overview section of Spam Filtering, and edit the setting for each disposable email address by clicking the "edit" links in the Disposable Email Addresses section of Spam Filtering.

How do I change my Spam Catcher settings?

You can choose your Spam Catcher settings in several places:

• To choose your general settings, go to the Spam Catcher Settings page in Spam Filtering. Use the buttons to select the setting you want and to choose whether you want to reset all of your addresses (including your @mailshell.com address, if you have one, and all of your disposable addresses) to this setting or use it only as the default for future disposable addresses. You can also use the menu to choose where you want caught spam delivered.



• If you have an @mailshell.com address, you can choose a setting for just this address by clicking the address name or the "edit" link in the Spam Filtering Overview section of Spam Filtering and using the buttons to make your selection.



• To change the setting for disposable email addresses, go to the Disposable Email Addresses section of Spam Filtering and click the "edit" link next to the address you want to change, then use the buttons to make your selection.

Can I change where caught spam is delivered?

Yes: by default, all caught spam is saved in your Junk folder, but you can change this setting by going to the Spam Catcher Settings section of Spam Filtering and making a new selection with the "Deliver Caught Spam To" menu. (Please note that if you deliver somewhere other than the Junk folder, you will not be able to use the "Not Junk" button to mark non-spam.)

What should I do if the Spam Catcher filters out a message that isn't spam?

Depending on your Spam Catcher strength, some legitimate messages may occasionally be filtered as junk even though they aren't. This is especially true of newsletters and other commercial email, which often share many characteristics with true spam.

If you have this problem, there are several things you can do:

• Decrease your Spam Catcher strength. This may mean that fewer legitimate messages are caught, but more spam may be allowed through.



• If you are delivering caught spam to your Junk folder, select those messages and click the "Not Junk" button. They will be moved to your Inbox and the sender(s) will be added to your Approved Senders list.



• Add the senders to either your Approved Senders list or your Address Book contacts. This will ensure that future messages from those senders are not filtered as junk.