How to Help the Mac OS X Mail Junk Filter Identify Spam

Mac OS X Mail comes with one of the best spam filters you'll find in any email program. To make it work well for you, you have to help it a bit.

Since the Bayesian-style spam filter of Mac OS X Mail relies on the type of spam as well as the type of good mail that you receive, you should tell it whenever it guesses wrong for a message. This helps to make the filter perform even better.

To help the Mac OS X Mail junk filter identify spam by correcting its decisions:

• If Mac OS X Mail wrongly identifies a message as junk
  • click the Not Junk button.
• If Mac OS X Mail doesn't detect a message as spam that definitely is
  • click the Junk toolbar button or
  • select Message | Mark | As Junk Mail (or Message | Mark As Junk Mail) from the menu.