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Improving Spam Filtration
Spammers are getting better and better and learning how to craft their emails so that they can bypass spam filters. If you're finding that after following the steps outlined in this article, you're still getting a lot of spam, there are additional steps you can take to help the server get better at filtering spam for you...
First Step
1. First, make sure that SpamAssassin is turned on and you have the spambox enabled.
click to enlarge
2. Log into webmail
3. Go to your settings, then click on 'folders' and make sure you're subscribed to the 'spam' folder (not the junk folder) and save the settings. If you're not seeing the spam folder in the list yet, wait a day or two. Once you have some spam, the spam folder should appear in the list.
If You Read Your Email in Webmail
Return to your inbox in webmail and check your email as usual. The only change going forward is if you receive a spam email in your inbox, make sure to move it to your 'spam' folder.
By doing this you're telling SpamAssassin that that particular email is spam to you. Over time as you continue to do this, SpamAssassin learns more and more about what you consider spam and gets better and better at filtering it out for you.
If You Read Your Email Using Email Software
If you read your email using email software like Microsoft Outlook or Mac Mail, read on.
In order for the server to learn more about what emails you consider to be spam, you need to be checking your email using IMAP protocol. Basically speaking, using IMAP, your email software is connecting to the server and displaying the email directly from the server.
First, set up your software to connect to your email using IMAP, not POP3. We have walkthrough's of a few different types of software available here.
Once your email account is set up and connecting succesfully, check your email as normal, but if you encounter spam emails in your inbox, make sure to move them to your 'spam' folder.
By doing this you're telling SpamAssassin that that particular email is spam to you. Over time as you continue to do this, SpamAssassin learns more and more about what you consider spam and gets better and better at filtering it out for you.
Add a Cron Job For Spam Assassin To Learn Spam and 'Ham'
*ham is slang term for non-spam or legitimate email
Log into your cpanel and click on 'cron jobs' in the advanced section of your cpanel
Add in two cron jobs to run about once a week that tell spam assassin to scan your spam folder and scan your inbox to learn what you consider spam email and what you consider good email.
If you're having trouble with this step, please contact your support department and ask them "to set up spam assassin learning crons for X email account (replace X with the email account that needs help reducing spam)." Please reference this article in your support ticket.
cpanelusername = the username you use to log into cpanel with
emaildomain.com = the domain that your email address ends with (ie @domain.com)
emailaccount = the first part of your email address before (and not including) the @ symbol.
The Crons
/usr/local/bin/sa-learn --spam /home/cpanelusername/mail/emaildomain.com/emailaccount/.spam/cur/
/usr/local/bin/sa-learn --ham /home/cpanelusername/mail/emaildomain.com/emailaccount/cur/
Example Crons
Email address is bob@bobsdomain.com and the cpanel users is bobsdom. The cron jobs would be as follows:
/usr/local/bin/sa-learn --spam /home/bobsdom/mail/bobsdomain.com/bob/.spam/cur/
/usr/local/bin/sa-learn --ham /home/bobsdom/mail/bobsdomain.com/bob/cur/
Allow Some Time For SpamAssassin to Learn
It will take a bit of time, but as you continue to sort your spam emails into the spam folders, SpamAssassin continues to learn what you consider to be spam email. This time varies depending on your volume of email and volume of spam email coming in.