What is PureMessage?
How does PureMessage Identify Spam?
Approved Senders
Blocked Senders
Quarantine Digests
What is PureMessage?
PureMessage is a mail filtering program that runs on the email server. All ingoing and outgoing email messages pass through PureMessage. The PureMessage filter looks for certain message characteristics, and performs actions on the message when these characteristics are found.
How does PureMessage Identify Spam?
PureMessage contains several hundred spam tests that analyze individual characteristics of each message. Each of these tests has a numerical score. When a message is analyzed by PureMessage, the scores from all the spam tests that matched the message are added up and converted to a percentage that expresses the message's "spam probability".
By default, PureMessage only checks for spam in messages that originate from outside the network, not for messages that originate within the local domain. If a message is found to have a spam probability of 60% or more, it is copied to the PureMessage quarantine. Please note that messages with a score of 0% are scored this way because that address has been entered into the system as a verified spammer address and is not scanned, but is automatically quarantined.
Approved Senders
Approved Senders are those email addresses that are known to be legitimate sources of email. By default, email from approved senders and hosts are delivered by PureMessage without being scanned for spam.
If an email is quarantined, and you do not want it to be quarantined, please send the email address to webmaster@carr.org. We will place it in the Approved Senders list within one business day.
Blocked Senders
Blocked Senders are those email addresses that are known to distribute spam or viruses. By default, email from blocked senders and hosts are quarantined by PureMessage. These emails are not scanned and are automatically given a spam rating of 0%.
If an email gets through repeatedly, then you may send the email address to us for blocking. We will verify that the email address should be blocked before it is added. Please send us only one list of addresses per day, and do not include the entire email. Send these lists to webmaster@carr.org. We will enter these lists in to the blocked sender list once per week.
Addresses we will not block:
- Any carr.org address.
- Addresses that have gibberish for the username. Ex: qadfefafakjh@yahoo.com.
- Addresses that appear to be the result of your subscribing to a newsletter or other service. You must contact the newsletter or service directly to have your email address removed.
- Addresses that are the obvious result of a virus. If the email address does not correlate to the sender's name or the content of the email, then these were sent by a virus and we will not add them to the list.
Quarantine Digests
When the PureMessage filter detects that a message has a 60% or greater likelihood of containing spam, the message is stored in the PureMessage quarantine instead of being delivered. Quarantine digests are email messages generated by PureMessage that list each user's quarantined messages.
Quarantine digests display the quarantine message ID number, the spam probability percentage, the message's From address, and the message's Subject. To release a single message from the quarantine, click on the ID number. This will generate an email to PureMessage; the message will be automatically released. To release all listed messages from the quarantine, reply to the message.
Known Digest Issues:
Do not use WebMail to release messages. WebMail is not compatible with the PureMessage software.
IncrediMail has a problem with how it formats the # sign at the beginning of the Spam ID. To release messages using IncrediMail, click on the ID as you normally would. When the compose email window comes up, you will something similar to: [%23g6n1rg]. Change the %23 to #, so that it reads similar to [#g6n1rg]. Then send the email and you will receive the quarantined message.
Netscape Communicator 7.0 and 7.01 have a bug that does not release quarantined items. Upgrade to a newer version of the software and the digest release mechanism will work correctly.
