The best way to avoid unwanted e-mail (often known as spam) is to protect the privacy of your e-mail address. This article offers a tactic for filtering unwanted messages once your address has become known to those who send mass mailings. This technique takes advantage of header information added by Virginia Tech's spam identification system. For information about other techniques for handling unwanted messages, see Receiving Unwanted E-mail Messages (Often Known as spam) (http://answers.vt.edu/kb/entry/1064/).

The Virginia Tech mail servers tag all incoming e-mail that they suspect to be unsolicited messages (also known as spam) with a special header string beginning with "X-Junkmail" or "X-JunkMail". To filter messages with this header, create a new folder. Then, using the Message Filters tool, create a rule that puts all messages with "X-Junkmail" and "X-JunkMail" in the header into that folder. To do this:

To filter unwanted messages:

1. Start OS X Mail.
2. Create a new mailbox.
3. From the Mailbox menu, select New Mailbox.
4. From the Location: drop-down list, select On My Mac.
5. In the Name text box, type: Junkmail
6. Click OK.
7. From the Mail menu, select Preferences....
8. Click the Rules icon.
9. Click the Add Rule button.
10. In the Description: text box, type: Junkmail Rule
11. Under If any of the following conditions are met:, from the first drop-down list, select Edit Header List....
12. In the Message Headers box, click on + or the Plus button.
13. In the text box, type: X-Junkmail
14. Click OK.
15. Under If any of the following conditions are met:, from the first drop-down list, select Edit Header List....
16. In the Message Headers box, click on + or the Plus button.
17. In the text box, type: X-JunkMail
18. Click OK.
19. From the first drop-down list, select X-Junkmail.
20. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
21. In the text box, type: UCE
22. Click the Plus button.
23. In the new set of lists, from the first drop-down list, select X-Junkmail.
24. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
25. In the text box, type: RBL
26. Click the Plus button.
27. In the new set of lists, from the first drop-down list, select X-Junkmail.
28. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
29. In the text box, type: Blacklisted
30. Click the Plus button.
31. In the new set of lists, from the first drop-down list, select X-JunkMail.
32. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
33. In the text box, type: UCE
34. Click the Plus button.
35. In the new set of lists, from the first drop-down list, select X-JunkMail.
36. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
37. In the text box, type: RBL
38. Click the Plus button.
39. In the new set of lists, from the first drop-down list, select X-JunkMail.
40. From the second drop-down list, select Contains.
41. In the text box, type: Blacklisted
42. Under Perform the following actions:, from the first drop-down list, select Move Message.
43. Under Perform the following actions:, from the second drop-down list, go to On My Mac.
44. Select Junkmail.
45. Click OK.
46. Close the Rules window.