Unsolicited e-mail, often called "spam" is a serious problem on the Internet; some estimates say almost half the world's e-mail is spam. BitRelay uses a spam filter called SpamAssassin to attempt to categorize and flag messages that might be spam.

Every incoming message is automatically scanned, and certain header information is written to the message indicating whether the message is legitimate or spam. These headers are normally not visible when you download your mail, so they will not affect the content or data in any messages. However, using the information in the headers you can process your mail and "weed out" the spam. Click here to see an example of the full headers from a spam message.

One line in the header can be used to create anti-spam mail filters:

X-Spam-Flag: YES

If your e-mail message contains this string in the headers, the message is most likely spam. You may choose to move it into a special folder automatically, or simply delete it immediately.

For detailed instructions about how to set up spam filtering in Outlook 2000, refer to an excellent guide at real-time.com.

Please note that SpamAssassin is very accurate in its assessment of e-mail, but obviously it cannot be omniscient. There is a chance a legitimate message may be tagged as spam, or that a spam message may be listed as legitimate. BitRelay makes no guarantees, real or implied, regarding the classification of e-mail messages. Your use of mail filters is at your own risk.