Managing unsolicited (SPAM/Junk) email

The links to your right provide documentation to configure the common email programs to filter unsolicited email.   For further assistance with configuring your email program, contact the iT Service Desk.

How unsolicited email identification works

All email entering the University's main email servers is scanned using the latest anti-spam technology that accurately identifies spam email. Email identified as spam is deleted automatically before it reaches your mailbox. Email identified as suspected spam is tagged and delivered to your mailbox. The tag is inserted into the email header, hidden within each email you receive. This hidden information can be used by your email program (eg Microsoft Outlook) to automatically filter suspected spam email to another folder. You should then periodically check the suspected-spam folder for any email you wish to read or keep, and delete the remaining spam.

Even with our anti-spam technology in place, we cannot guarantee to detect all unwanted email (including obscene and inappropriate emails). Those who send junk email are constantly finding new ways to structure their emails to avoid detection by spam scanning software. Examples include misspelling words, using other character symbols to represent letters in words, sending ads as images in emails with random English text, inserting hidden information within the email header to make the email appear to originate from an authentic sender, etc.

If you do receive spam that is not blocked by our anti-spam systems, please forward it as an attachment to spam.report@murdoch.edu.au. Doing this will enable us to improve our spam-detection capabilities, ultimately leading to less spam for all of us.

Status of unsolicited email detection at Murdoch University (July 2008)

IT Services is using sophisticated anti-spam technology that correctly identifies 95 per cent of spam, and incorrectly identifies as spam approximately 1 out of every million legitimate messages.

The anti-spam system recognises servers that are known to send spam, and does not accept mail from them. Email that is accepted is scanned and deleted immediately when identified as spam. In one week of July 2008, there were 8 million attempts to send email to Murdoch users. Of this total, approximately 7.85 million were blocked as spam or viruses. This is four times the number of malicious messages detected a year ago.

Related Links

Email Censorship and Unwanted Mail Policy