COMIS Spam Filter Frequently Asked Questions


Where does my e-mail go that is considered by the system to be spam?

E-mail that the system considers to be spam will be delivered to your Junk E-mail folder in Outlook. You should check the contents of your Junk E-mail folder on a regular basis to look for false positives. E-mail delivered to your Junk E-mail folder will be automatically deleted after 60 days.

I found an e-mail in my Junk E-mail folder that is not actually spam. What can I do to prevent future e-mails from this sender from being delivered to my Junk E-mail folder?

Outlook 2010:

  • Right-click on the e-mail in your Junk E-mail folder.
  • Put your mouse over the Junk E-mail option.
  • Choose Add Sender to Safe Senders List.

Outlook Web Access (OWA):

  • Right-click on the e-mail in your Junk E-mail folder.
  • Choose Add Sender to Safe Senders List.
There is an e-mail in my Inbox that is spam, but was not delivered to the Junk E-mail folder. What can I do to make future e-mails from this sender be delivered to my Junk E-mail folder?

Outlook 2010:

  • Right-click on the unwanted e-mail in your Inbox.
  • Put your mouse over the Junk option.
  • Choose Block Sender.

Outlook Web Access (OWA):

  • Right-click on the unwanted e-mail in your Inbox.
  • Put your mouse over the Junk E-mail option.
  • Choose Add Sender to Blocked Senders List.
What is the Safe Recipients List and why would I want to use it?
  • If you participate in a newsgroup or distribution list, e-mails sent to that list are not specifically addressed to you.  Instead they are addresssed to the e-mail address of the newsgroup or distribution list in which you participate.
  • The Safe Recipients List allows you to control spam filtering on messages in which you are not listed as the recipient.
  • To prevent these messages from being treated as spam, add the e-mail addresses of the newsgroups or distribution lists in which you participate to your Safe Recipients List.

Outlook 2010:

  • Right-click on an e-mail sent to the list you want to add to your Safe Recipients List.
  • Put your mouse over the Junk E-mail option.
  • Choose Add Recipient to Safe Recipients List.

Outlook Web Access (OWA):

  • Right-click on an e-mail sent to the list you want to add to your Safe Recipients List.
  • Choose Add Recipient to Safe Recipients List.
How do I view or change the contents of my Safe Senders List in Outlook 2003?
  • Click on Actions in the Outlook menu, put your mouse over Junk E-mail, and choose Junk E-mail
  • If the following box appears click on the Please do not show me this dialog again box and click OK.
  • Click on the Safe Senders tab.
  • Click the Add button to manually add an e-mail address to your Safe Senders List.
  • Click an e-mail address in the list to highlight it.
  • Click the Edit button to edit the highlighted e-mail address.
  • Click the Remove button to remove the highlighted address from the Safe Senders List.
  • Click OK when finished
How do I view or change the contents of my Safe Recipients List in Outlook 2003?
  • Click on Actions in the Outlook menu, put your mouse over Junk E-mail, and choose Junk E-mail Options. 
  • If the following box appears click on the Please do not show me this dialog again box and click OK.
  • Click on the Safe Recipients tab.
  • Click the Add button to manually add an e-mail address to your Safe Recipients List.
  • Click an e-mail address in the list to highlight it.
  • Click the Edit button to edit the highlighted e-mail address.
  • Click the Remove button to remove the highlighted address from the Safe Recipients List.
  • Click OK when finished.
How do I view or change the contents of my Blocked Senders List in Outlook 2003?
  • Click on Actions in the Outlook menu, put your mouse over Junk E-mail, and choose Junk E-mail Options.
  • If the following box appears click on the Please do not show me this dialog again box and click OK.
  • Click on the Blocked Senders tab.
  • Click the Add button to manually add an e-mail address to your Blocked Senders List.
  • Click an e-mail address in the list to highlight it.
  • Click the Edit button to edit the highlighted e-mail address.
  • Click the Remove button to remove the highlighted address from the Blocked Senders List.
  • Click OK when finished.
How do I view or change the contents of my Safe Senders List, Safe Recipients List, and Blocked Senders List in Outlook Web Access (OWA)?
  • Click on the Options button located in the menu bar on the bottom left-hand side of the screen in OWA.
  • Scroll down to the Privacy and Junk E-mail Prevention section.
  • Click the Manage Junk E-mail Lists button.
  • Use the dropdown menu to select the list you want to view or modify.
  • Click the Add button to manually add an e-mail address to the selected list.
  • Click the Edit button to edit the currently highlighted e-mail address in the selected list.
  • Click the Remove button to remove the currently highlighted e-mail address from the selected list.
I still get spam e-mail in my Inbox and adding the senders to my Blocked Senders List is not helping get rid of it. Is there anything I can do to block these unwanted e-mails?

While the COMIS Spam Filter does manage to successfully filter most spam e-mails, it is not 100% accurate. Some false negatives will continue to make it through the filter undetected. Many spammers will not use the same address twice to send their spam e-mails to you. So, blocking the sender of the message has no effect as the next message may come from a different address.

Unfortunately there is really nothing you can do from preventing these messages from being delivered to your Inbox. The filters that are used to determine the likelihood that a particular message is spam are constantly being updated. So, a message that is not considered to be spam today may be considered to be spam tomorrow.