SPAM Prevention
Introduction
SPAM is an unfortunate fact of life. You can reduce the amount of SPAM you receive by following the tips on this page.
Prevent your email addresses getting on SPAM lists
Never put your email address on your web site. Automatic email address harvesters will find it and add it to SPAM mailing lists. You should hide it in some way, for example: Create an image showing your email address and put that on your web pages Use JavaScript to hide you address, e.g. using [[http://www.z-host.com/scripts/iscramble/][iScramble]] Never reply to SPAM Do not click on links in SPAM emails. This usually confirms that your email address is active and you'll get more SPAM. Avoid "catch-all" email rules since these will be susceptable to generic (e.g. sales@yourdomain.com) or randomly generated email addresses.
Enable SpamAssassin
You can enable SpamAssassin on your cPanel account on the server to detect SPAM emails before they reach you. Login to cPanel Click on Mail Click on SpamAssassin Click "Enable SpamAssassin" Click "Go Back" Click "Configure SpamAssassin" In the "rewrite_header_subject" box enter "***SPAM***" Click "Save" This causes the subject line of emails identified as SPAM to be marked with "***SPAM***" in the subject line. You can then use a rule in your email client to filter these emails into a seperate mail folder. If you just want to get rid of the SPAM you can click on the "click here" just above the "Enable SpamAssassin" button. The following flash tutorials are available covering Spam Assassin Introduction to Spam Assassin Spam Assassin enable same subject Spam Assassin rewrite subject Spam Assassin enable spam box
Email Filtering
If you have several email addresses, and some receive a large amount of SPAM you could delete all emails that are addressed to that particular email address: Login to cPanel Click on Mail Click on "Email Filtering" Click "Add Filter" Select "To" and "equals" from the drop down boxes, enter the email address in the entry box, leave the destination as "Discard" and click "Activate"
Email Authentication
If you are receiving bounced emails containing spam that are sent to your email address, then your email address is probably being forged by a spammer. Email authentication can help stop this. DomainKeys can be used if you send outgoing email through our servers. It also protects the email from being tampered with on the way by digitally sigining contents of the email. The signature is checked by the receiver using a public key published in the domain DNS records. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) allows mail servers to detect and reject forged email addresses. SPF records help to detect spam emails that uses your forged email address. They are a special DNS TXT entry that gives details on which servers are allowed to send email from your domain. Using this information along with further information in email headers, forged email addresses can be detected. To enable either or both of these, login to cPanel and click on the "Email Authentication" option. Enabling both is usually a good idea.

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