Using SpamGuard Plus

Getting Started Working With the Bulk Mail Folder Setting Up the Spam Button Training the Filter Resetting the Filter

Training the SpamGuard Plus Filter

As you use SpamGuard Plus, it learns specifically what you consider to be spam and not spam. It can then accurately filter each type of message to the appropriate folders.

Training the SpamGuard Plus filter involves:

  • Clicking the Spam button to report messages delivered to your Inbox or one of your personal folders that are spam. This deletes the message and trains the filter to recognise messages of this type as spam in the future.

    Diagram illustrating what happens when you mark a message in the Inbox as spam.

  • Clicking the Not Spam button to report messages in your Bulk folder that aren’t spam. These are messages that you want delivered to your Inbox. This trains the filter to recognise messages of this type as "good mail" in the future. In addition, you have the option of automatically moving messages that you identify as "Not Spam" to your Inbox.

    Diagram illustrating what happens when you mark a message in the Bulk folder as not spam.

As you reclassify messages as spam or not spam, the general SpamGuard filter gets additional information about the spam that BT Yahoo! Mail users receive. Reclassifying messages also adds to your personal SpamGuard Plus filter’s training history, helping it understand your specific spam preferences.

 

Here’s How

  1. To report and delete spam in your Inbox without opening any messages (which BT Yahoo! recommends), select the message or messages that you wish to report, then click the Spam button.

    In a folder, select the message or messages that should be spam, then click the Spam button.

    Tip: You can identify and remove spam in any of your personal folders in the same way.

  2. If you open a spam message by mistake, you can still report and delete it by clicking the Spam button above the message.

    With a message open, click the Spam button.

  3. To identify one or more messages in the Bulk folder as email you do want to receive, select the message or messages that are not spam, then click the Not Spam button.

    In the Bulk folder, select the message or messages that you want to receive, then click the Not Spam button.

  4. If you open a message in the Bulk folder by mistake, you can still identify it as email you do want to receive by clicking the Not Spam button at the top of the message.

    With a message open, click the Not Spam button.

 

What’s Next

The more you train the SpamGuard and SpamGuard Plus filters, the better they will work for you.

If you turn SpamGuard Plus off, your personal training history is still saved for you. When you decide to turn SpamGuard Plus on again, you once again benefit from that history. If you wish to delete the training history, you can reset the SpamGuard Plus filter.

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Words to Know

  • Bulk folder: a permanent folder that SpamGuard Plus uses to hold messages it identifies as spam.
  • Filter: a rule BT Yahoo! Mail uses to direct an incoming message to a particular folder.
  • Folder: a container that holds individual elements specific to the context; for example, email messages in BT Yahoo! Mail or bookmarks in the Bookmarks Sidebar module.
  • Spam: unsolicited email on the Internet; also called "junk mail".
  • Training history: the information that SpamGuard Plus collects about the messages that a user considers spam and not spam.