Block Spam E-mail - Using Pine

This is a detailed document on how to set up Pine to block unwanted e-mail from reaching your inbox.
Blocking Spam Email Using Outlook. For Eudora, Blocking Spam Using Eudora.

The university system automatically flags emails which have a good probability of being junk mail. You can use this flag to keep those messages from even coming to your inbox.

• Choose which kind of filtering you would like to do with Pine
  • Delete all flagged messages. Note: The university spam flagging system is not perfect, and could possibly flag some messages which you want to keep. If you are concerned about this, do the following option.
  • Move all flagged messages to a spam folder. To remove the messages later, you have to delete them manually.
• Start Pine
• If you have chosen to move the flagged messages to a spam folder, you will need to take the following steps. This does not need to be done if you have chosen to automatically delete all flagged messages.
  • Select "Folder List" from the main Pine menu, then select "Mail" on the next screen
  • Push a to type in the name of a new folder
  • Type in Spam (or whatever else you wish to call the new folder), then hit enter to accept the new folder name
    
    
    
    Figure 1
    
    
  • Push m to get back to the main menu
  
  
  
• Select "Setup" from the main Pine menu
  
  
  
  Figure 2
  
  
• Push r for "Rules", then when Pine asks for the "Type of rule setup", push f for "Filters"
• Push a to add a new filter rule
• To give your filter a better name, hit enter. Then backspace over "Filter Rule", type "Spam Filter", and hit enter to accept the name
  
  
  
  Figure 3
  
  
• Move the highlighted selection line to the selections following the line "FILTERED MESSAGE CONDITIONS BEGIN HERE"
  
  
  
  Figure 4
  
  
• Push x to add a new message header by which to filter, type in X-Perlmx-Spam, and hit enter to accept the new header.
  
  
  
  Figure 5
  
  
• Hit enter to to edit the new "X-Perlmx-Spam" pattern. Then, what you type next will depend upon how fine of control you want over your junk mail filtering:
  • For simple spam filtering, type Gauge, and then hit enter to accept
  • For more exact filtering, you can explicitly set Pine to delete messages which have a certain probability of being junk mail. If you look at the actual header put on junk mail, it is something similar to the following: X-Perlmx-Spam: Gauge=XXXXXXII, Probability=62%, ... The "Gauge" number and the probability numbers are the same, showing the probability that the mail is spam. However, note that the gauge number is put with an X for each probability level of 10. That means, if you want just to delete messages with 90% or greater probability of being spam, you can search for the word Gauge=XXXXXXXXX instead of simply for the word Gauge. So, for example, type Gauge=XXXXXXXXX for 90% probability, then hit enter to accept
  
  
  
  
  Figure 6
  
  
• Move the highlighted line down to "Filter Action"
  • If you have decided to move flagged messages to a spam folder, move the highlighted line down to the line which reads "Folder List = <No Value Set>". Then hit enter, type in the folder name Spam (or whatever else you named your spam folder), and then hit enter to accept
  • If you have decided to have the flagged messages deleted automatically, move the highlighted line down to "Delete", and hit enter
  
  
  
  
  Figure 7
  
  
• Push e to exit setup, then y to save your settings
• Once more, push e to exit setup, then y to save your settings
• Now you are done! As before, Unix will still inform you when you receive new mail (even junk mail), but Pine will now automatically move your flagged messages to your new spam folder or delete them (depending on how you chose to set up Pine)