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Take Control of Spam with Apple Mail
Stamp out spam in Apple Mail by following email expert Joe Kissell's meticulously researched steps! Gain insight into the types of spam, why you get so much of it, and how to handle fraudulent or malicious messages. This book explains how Apple Mail filters out spam, and it discusses eight ways to optimize the Junk Mail filter. Is spam still sneaking through the Junk Mail filter? Joe introduces you to add-on utilities that catch even more spam. Bonus section! Learn how rules interact with the Junk Mail filter. Updated for Leopard!
Includes a $5-off coupon for SpamSieve, Joe's favorite spam-fighting utility! (The coupon is on the last page of the book.)
More Info
Contents & Intro
What's New
FAQ
Blog
Questions answered in this book include:
How does Mail's Junk Mail filtering really work?
How does the spam filter use my Previous Recipients list?
How could a spammer's email addresses get on my Previous Recipients list?
What can I do to not get so much spam in the first place?
What's the deal with email that pretends to come from my bank?
What features should I look for in a spam-fighting utility or service?
Should I try server-based filtering?
Book Info
71 pages
Version 1.4
Updated 13-May-08
1.4 MB download
ISBN: 1933671033
Free sample with Table of Contents, Introduction, Quick Start, and section starts.
About the Author
Joe Kissell has written numerous books about the Macintosh, including many popular Take Control ebooks. He's also Senior Editor of TidBITS, contributes frequently to Macworld, and previously spent ten years in the Mac software industry.
Spam, or junk mail, is a plague that affects virtually every email user. You can keep unwanted messages out of your Inbox with the potent combination of Apple Mail, a bit of know-how, and a few third-party tools. In this book, you'll learn everything you need to know to keep spam out of Mail. This book was written by Joe Kissell, edited by Tonya Engst, and published by TidBITS Publishing Inc.
Introduction
Every copy of Mac OS X includes an email application called Mail (also sometimes known as Apple Mail or Mail.app). Because Mail is free, well integrated with other software, and fairly full-featured, it has become the most popular way for Mac users to send and receive email. Although I've tried every email application available for Mac OS X, Mail remains my personal favorite.
Nevertheless, Mail is far from perfect. Even with the improvements seen in recent updates, Mail has a number of deficiencies that have caused grief for thousands of users. One particularly problematic area is Mail's handling of junk mail.
Junk mail, or spam, causes more frustration and anger among computer users than almost anything else. Most of us find our Inboxes full of unwanted solicitations of every description, with the volume of junk mail increasing constantly. Mail includes a built-in Junk Mail filter designed to identify spam immediately, and better yet, the more you use it, the more accurate it gets. Apple would like you to think you can end your junk mail problems simply by turning on this filter.
Unfortunately, as many Mail users have discovered, far too much spam still appears in our Inboxes. Sometimes, this is due to an error in the way the Junk Mail filter is configured, or improper usage. At times, it may be due to a bug in Mail. And still other times, this occurs simply because spammers are getting smarter all the time, and have found ways around some of Mail's junk-filtering strategies. The bottom line is that for many users, Mail hasn't solved the junk mail problem—and for a few, it's made the problem worse.
I receive a great deal of email—and, consequently, a great deal of spam. So I've experienced the same problems other Mail users have. Rather than give up and start shopping for another email application (which may have its own problems dealing with spam), I decided to do some research and perform some experiments to figure out what was happening behind the scenes, why Mail does things the way it does, and how to address the limitations of Mail's Junk Mail filter. This book is the result of my investigation: your detailed guide to taking control of spam with Apple Mail.
Understanding how Mail really works is a crucial first step to using it effectively. Beyond that, I've discovered numerous tips, techniques, and add-ons that, taken together, have increased Mail's spam identification accuracy on my computer to nearly 100 percent. Needless to say, your mileage may vary, but if you follow the instructions in this book, you should be able to solve most of your junk mail problems with Mail.
Of course, junk mail is just one of many things Mail users may struggle with. In order to keep this book to a reasonable length, I've left out such important topics as understanding email protocols, solving problems with sending and receiving messages, dealing with attachments, and overcoming difficulties with addresses. I cover all these topics and more in Take Control of Apple Mail in Leopard(and, for Tiger users, Take Control of Apple Mail in Tiger).
In my testing for this latest update, I used Mail version 3.2, which is included with Mac OS X Leopard version 10.5.2. With very few exceptions (most of which I've noted), everything I say here is also true of the versions of Mail included with Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4.x) and Panther (Mac OS X 10.3.x).
If you have an older version of Mac OS X (and thus an older version of Mail), some of these instructions will not apply to you. In any case, I strongly recommend that you upgrade to the latest version of Leopard, if only to take advantage of improvements that Apple has made to Mail; consider purchasing my book Take Control of Upgrading to Leopard if you need help.
Quick Start to Controlling Your Junk Mail
I organized this book with background information at the beginning, followed by easy practical steps you can take, and then more complex alternatives. Most readers will find it helpful to follow this overall strategy in order, though you may skip steps that don't apply to you. Here's how I recommend approaching the process of taking back your Inbox:
Understand the problem:
Begin by learning what makes junk mail different from other messages and why you receive it in the first place. See Learn about Junk Mail.
Discover the inner workings of Mail's built-in Junk Mail filter—including its benefits and its shortcomings. See Learn about Junk Mail Filtering.
Eliminate your junk mail:
Make sure your built-in Junk Mail filter uses the best and most efficient settings, and then take additional steps to reduce errors and solve problems. See Optimize Your Junk Mail Filter.
If you need more power or accuracy than Mail's built-in Junk Mail filter can provide, consider supplementing or replacing it with one of several alternatives. See Go beyond the Junk Mail Filter.
Customize Mail further with your own rules to handle junk mail (or other messages) in exactly the way you want. See Appendix A: Rules.
What's New in Version 1.4
This update mainly covers changes in Leopard and third-party tools:
Revised description of junk mail modes and other options in How Mail's Junk Mail Filter Works
Described a new junk mail option in Leopard in Reduce False Negatives
Thoroughly updated the discussion of third-party spam filters in Use Add-On Spam Filters
Made numerous small corrections throughout the book
What Was New in Version 1.3
The prior update included the following changes from the 1.2 release:
Updated the discussion of Windows viruses in What about Viruses?
Mentioned a case in which spam flags added by a server take precedence over Address Book; see the warning Trust No One?
Added Adjust Your .Mac Settings, a section describing the changes Apple made to .Mac junk mail filtering in August 2007
Added a discussion of how to Add Image Spam Rules
Thoroughly updated Use Add-On Spam Filters to discuss the latest versions of each utility and add information about Em@ilCRX (now replaced with information on Purify)
Replaced graphics with clearer versions.
What versions of Apple Mail does this book cover?
This ebook covers Mail 3, which comes with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, as well as Mail 2 from 10.4 Tiger and Mail 1 from 10.3 Panther. Mail's handling of spam so far has been fairly static, so there's no problem with including all these versions in one ebook. We are currently working on a new version, which will include a smattering of details for Mail 4, which comes with 10.6 Snow Leopard. See the Blog tab (slightly above on this Web page) for more information about the upcoming new version.
Ask a Question
Feel free to ask us if you have a question about this book!
Send Us Your Comments!
How could we not publish such kind words? If you'd like to send us your comments (good or bad, though we hope they're all good), just click the Feedback link on the cover of your copy of the ebook. Be sure to let us know if we can publish your comment. Thanks!
Update Plans
January 2010 -- Joe and I are working on a new version of this ebook. The new version will continue to cover all versions of Apple Mail while adding a few details relating to Mail 4 in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. We are using the excuse of adding Snow Leopard information to generally refresh the manuscript for 2010, though most of it remains current and useful. We plan (but do not promise) to release the new version in March or April, and we expect that it will be a free update.
The Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard version of Apple Mail has been out for a while. Here's a quick look at what's changed between the 10.5 Leopard version and the Snow Leopard version:
Mail now natively supports Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
You can re-arrange items in the sidebar.
Performance has been improved significantly, especially when displaying the contents of mailboxes, searching, and moving messages.
Data detectors can now recognize flight numbers.
HTML message editing has been improved in several respects.
C-Command Software has released a maintenance update to its powerful Bayesian spam filtering software, SpamSieve. Changes include improved compatibility with pre-release versions of Mac OS X, enhanced filtering accuracy, modernized program code, an updated version of the Vietnamese localization, and an updated version of the Apple Mail script for discarding spam. Also, a bug that prevented the Apple Mail command Train as Good from moving Exchange messages back to the Inbox has been fixed, and encoded HTML mail is no longer recognized as spam in the default settings.
If you get a Facebook message from a friend suggesting that you visit fbaction.net or fbstarter.com, delete it, since it's a phishing attack that's trying to capture your login credentials. For more details, see Adam's TidBITS article, Beware Facebook Phishing Attack!
If you've ever thought that a great way to reduce spam would be to redirect email that you receive from your primary email address (or all your email addresses) through a Gmail account, you're not alone. And, if you've struggled with sometimes wanting to use Gmail, but sometimes wanting to use Apple Mail, you're in good company, particularly the company of Joe Kissell. To learn much more, check out Joe's exceptionally detailed TidBITS article, Achieving Email Bliss with IMAP, Gmail, and Apple Mail. The first part of this article has background information about the IMAP method of retrieving email from a mail server, while the second details how to make your email work like Joe's does.
Joe Kissell has written numerous books about the Macintosh, including many popular Take Control ebooks. He's also Senior Editor of TidBITS, contributes frequently to Macworld, and previously spent ten years in the Mac software industry.