Yahoo! Mail Tutorials

Using SpamGuard

Getting Started Working With the Spam Mail Folder Training the Filter Resetting the Filter

Getting Started With SpamGuard

We all hate spam. Spam, if you don’t know, is any message or posting, regardless of its content, that is sent to multiple recipients who haven’t specifically requested the message. Other common terms for spam include junk mail, UCE (unsolicited commercial email), and UBE (unsolicited bulk email). The most effective way to prevent spam from entering your Yahoo! Mail Inbox is to use SpamGuard. Learn more

The SpamGuard tool uses filters that automatically send suspected spam to a special mail folder called Spam.

The Spam folder in the list of mail folders.

When SpamGuard is turned off, Yahoo! Mail delivers all incoming email, including spam, to your Inbox (and, if you’ve created your own filters, to other folders). When it’s turned on, SpamGuard identifies suspect messages and routes them to your Spam folder, where you can review them.

Yahoo! Mail Plus icon If you’re a Yahoo! Mail Plus user, you automatically have access to the SpamGuard Plus tool. SpamGuard Plus enhances basic SpamGuard functionality by using your own personal spam filter, in addition to the general SpamGuard filter. By marking messages as Spam or Not Spam, you develop a training history for your personal spam filter.

 

Here’s How

  1. In the upper-right corner of your Yahoo! Mail page, click the Options link, then select Mail Options from the menu.

    Click the Options link, then select Mail Options.

    The Mail Options page opens.

  2. Under the Spam column, click the Spam Protection link.

    Tip: The first time you open Spam Protection, Yahoo! Mail takes you through a series of steps to set up your spam options. Afterwards, the Spam Protection page shows your initial setup options. The following steps describe this page and how to change your options.

  3. In the Spam Filter section of the Spam Protection page, you should see that SpamGuard is on.

    The current status shows that SpamGuard is on.Enlarge

  4. If SpamGuard is off, click the Turn SpamGuard ON link to turn it on.

    Click the Turn SpamGuard ON link to turn it on.

  5. Choose one of the following options to specify what SpamGuard should do with spam messages:

    • Immediately delete these messages upon receipt.

      Tip: Sometimes, based on the information it uses for filtering messages, SpamGuard may classify a valid email message as spam and deliver it to the Spam folder. If you select the "delete immediately" option, you won’t have a chance to review the messages in your Spam folder before Yahoo! Mail deletes them.

    • Save these messages in the Bulk Folder for:

      Select a period of time from the pull-down list:

      Select a period of time to save messages in the Spam folder.

      Note: The Bulk folder is an older name for the Spam folder.

  6. Click the Save Changes button.

 

What’s Next

SpamGuard becomes even more effective as you use it because you train it to recognize what you consider to be junk mail.

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Words to Know

  • Filter: a set of rules that 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 Yahoo! Mail.
  • Spam folder: a permanent folder that holds messages considered spam by you or Spamguard or Spamguard Plus.
  • Training history: the information that SpamGuard Plus collects about the messages that a user considers spam and not spam.

Popups

You can help cut down on spam in other ways as well: