[SPAM] Emails Delivered to Inbox And How To Manage Them
Description
There has been an increase in email messages marked as spam being delivered to email inboxes rather than junk mail folders for GroupWise email users. These emails are correctly identified as spam and marked with [SPAM] at the start of email subject lines.
However, in some cases, these messages identified as spam are still delivered to the GroupWise inbox.
Example Subject Lines include:
[SPAM] Final Notice for Email Account
[SPAM] Congratulations!
[SPAM] You've been selected to participate
[SPAM] You're on our list
We suggest deleting the messages with a [SPAM] tag if they arrive at your inbox, as they are indeed spam.
If you want to take action to have these removed automatically, please review the resolutions section below. This will provide a configuration of a rule for preventing these messages marked as spam from being delivered to your inbox.
This scenario is caused by attackers who send spam messages as spoofed uregina.ca addresses. This is properly marked by the spam filter as SPAM. These messages are sent to inboxes by GroupWise, as email from contacts in your frequent contact/address book is not blocked/sent to junk mail folders.
Impact
While properly marked as spam, these emails can often cause confusion among users because of subject lines that include the user's own name, or may appear to be sent from the recpient's email address, and appear in the inbox rather than junk mail folder.
Messages delivered to inboxes are normally considered legitimate, however, when they are tagged with '[SPAM]' at the start of the subject line, they can be considered to junk mail, even though it resides in the inbox.
Users will be required to delete these messages, or to create a rule in GroupWise.
It is important to manage thes messages, as messages marked as spam can be malicious messages which can lead to account compromises, or loss of data when following links present in the emails.
Resolution
One option for dealling with [SPAM] messages is to create a GroupWise rule to automate removing [SPAM] emails from your GroupWise inbox to junk mail folder:
Step 1: In GroupWise, go to Tools -> Rules
Step 2: From the Rules window, click "New"
Step 3: From the New Rule window:
a) Name your rule i.e. "Spam Rule"
b) Check And items are: "Received"
c) Select Item types: "Mail"
Step 4: Define Conditions
Click "Define Conditions"
From the Define Condition Window:
Create a condition/row to select messages with [SPAM in the subject:
Select "Subject", "Contains" and "[SPAM]" and "And".
Create an additional condition/row to select messages which are spoofed messages from your email addresses:
Select "From", "Contains" and "firstname.lastname@uregina.ca" and "Or". Subsitute your email address for firstname.lastname within firstname.lastname@regina.ca.
Create an additional condition/row to select messages which are spoofed messages from your the email addresses of your username:
Select "From", "Contains" and "username@uregina.ca" and "End". Subsitute your username into username@uregina.ca. This will be your uregina.ca (Novell) username.
If you have any additional aliases, or generic accounts, you can optionally add these as a new row similar to the previous two rows.
Press "OK"
The Define Conditions field should now appear to the following:
Step 5: Add Action
Click "Add Action"
Selectet "Move to Folder..." from the drop down:
Select "Junk Mail" folder by checking:
Click Move.
The field listing actions should now appear as below ("Move To Folder: Junk Mail").
Press "Save".
Once completed, you can close the Rules window and all emails marked with [SPAM] with spoofed addresses will automatically go to your Junk Mail folder.
Resources
If you have reviewed the configuration provided under the resolution section and would still like some guidance setting up rules to filter your GroupWise inbox, please contact the IT Support Centre.
Email: IT.Support@uregina.ca
Phone: 306-585-4685
Toll-free in Canada: 1-844-585-4685