How do I filter messages that bypass the Premium Spam Filtering?

The following article explains how to filter messages that bypass the Premium Spam Filtering. When sending Spam, spammers can sometimes use cached MX records or scan your DNS record for an alternate address. For example, a spammer may look at your DNS record and see the entry for the Web mail interface and send email directly to the mail server. This method of Spam ignores your domain names MX record and causes mail to bypass the Premium Spam Filtering Spam filters.

Unfortunately, there is little that can be done to stop this. However, one solution that helps is to create filters for your SmarterMail account that only accepts emails coming directly from the Premium Spam Filtering servers and moves all other messages to a Junk Mail folder. This solution requires two filters to be created, one to handle emails sent through Premium Spam Filtering and one to handle emails not sent through Premium Spam Filtering.

Instructions for creating a new filter in SmarterMail can be found here.

NOTE: The following instructions should only be performed for users that are configured for Premium Spam Filtering.

Email Sent Through Premium Spam Filtering (filter 1)

1. On the criteria page, expand Other.
2. Check Sent through a specific server (by IP) and click Next.
3. Under Criteria Details, enter the following range: 64.18.2.1-64.18.2.255 and click Next.
4. Enter a name for the rule, e.g. "Email Sent Through Premium Spam Filtering".
5. Under Actions, check Move message to folder and select Inbox from the drop down menu.
6. Click Save.

This filter will scan all messages you receive to ensure they are from Premium Spam Filtering and place them in your Inbox.

Email Not Sent Through Premium Spam Filtering (filter 2)

1. On the criteria page, expand Contains Specific Words or Phrases.
2. Check Anywhere in Message and click Next.
3. Under Filter Type, select OR and check Use wildcards in search strings (* and ?).
4. Under Criteria Details, select contains, type @ in the text box and click Next.
5. Enter a name for the rule, e.g. "Email Not Sent Through Premium Spam Filtering".
6. Under Actions, check Move message to folder and select a folder other than your Inbox from the drop down menu (it may be necessary to create a new folder for these messages).
7. Click Save.

This filter will scan all messages you receive and move any messages that are not from Premium Spam Filtering into the folder you specify.

NOTE: These filters should be the last two filters in your filter list. If you have existing filters, you will need to move these filters to the bottom of your filter list.