Using Apple Mail's built in junk e-mail (spam) filter

Warning: Spam filtering will never be 100% accurate. You should routinely check the mailbox where you are placing the suspected spam for legitimate messages that were incorrectly filtered.

Apple's Mail program features a built in spam filter. This filter works by learning what messages you consider to be spam. To use this feature in Mail 1.3.9, do the following:

1. Start Mail.
2. Go to the Mail menu and select Preferences.
3. Click on the Junk Mail icon.
4. Check Enable Junk Mail Filtering.
5. Choose between Automatic and Training mode. Training mode marks messages as junk and leaves them in you Inbox, whereas Automatic moves messages it thinks are spam, and messages you mark as spam, to the Junk Mail folder.
6. There are three options are available to exempt messages from the junk filter that meet a certain criteria. We recommend using only the first two:
• Sender of message is in my address book.
• Sender of message is in my previous recipients list.
• Message is addressed using my full name.
7. Check Trust junk mail headers set by your ISP. This will allow Mail to utilize the spam indicator header inserted by the OIT central e-mail system.
8. If you would like to further customize the spam filter, click the Advanced... button.
9. After you have made your changes, close the Junk Mail window.

Initially, you will need to train the spam filter to recognize the messages you consider to be spam.

If a valid message is incorrectly marked as junk, highlight the message, go to the Message menu, then Mark, then As Not Junk Mail.

If a spam message is not marked as junk, follow the same steps as above, but select Mark -> As Junk Mail.

There is also a Mark as Junk/as Not Junk icon in the Mail's toolbar which you can use instead of the menus.

Over time, Mail will become more and more accurate at correctly identifying spam.