How to reduce spam

There are a few simple steps you can follow to minimize the amount of spam received in your inbox.

Avoid using common email account names

There are certain kinds of email addresses that are common to most sites (e.g., info@, webmaster@, sales@, etc). If you need to have email addresses like these, consider making them a little unusual (e.g., contactme@, siteissues@, salesteam@, etc.). Some spam is generated by guesswork, playing the odds that you will have a common email address. If you do not, the spam will not reach you.

Change your SpamAssassin™ settings

  1. Log in to your Dashboard: https://www.hostpapa.com/dashboard

  2. Click on My cPanel. If you have more than one domain associated with your HostPapa account, click on the appropriate domain link, then enter your cPanel password if required.

  3. From the Mail section, click on the SpamAssassin™ icon.

Enabled by default, SpamAssassin allows you to reduce the amount of spam-like emails you receive, while blocking any addresses causing you trouble. To make SpamAssassin™ stricter in terms of what is allowed through, change the Score rating, from the Filters section, to a lower number. The lower the number, the less likely spam will get through.

Keep in mind, if you lower the Score rating too far, SpamAssassin™ may also start misidentifying some regular emails as spam. You may also want to disable the Auto-Delete Spam feature (in the right-hand section of Filters) to keep legitimate email from being automatically deleted.

You can also blacklist (permanently block) an email address or domain name in SpamAssassin™. Click on Configure SpamAssassin at the bottom of the SpamAssassin™ page and follow the instructions at the top of the new page. Spam blocked this way will not be delivered to any of your accounts.

Change the default address routing

By default, all unrouted email (email sent to an address using your domain name, but which does not actually exist) will be directed to your main mailbox. To stop this:

  1. Log in to your Dashboard: https://www.hostpapa.com/dashboard

  2. Click on My cPanel. If you have more than one domain associated with your HostPapa account, click on the appropriate domain link, then enter your cPanel password if required.

  3. From the Mail section, click on the Default Address icon.

  4. In the Send all unrouted email for: dropdown list, select your domain name.

  5. Beneath the dropdown list, select the Discard with error to sender (at SMTP time) option.

  6. Click the Change button at the bottom of the form.

You should repeat this process for all the domain names linked to your HostPapa account.

Enable email authentication on your hosting account

There are two authentication methods you can use for your email: DomainKeys and SPF. Controls for both methods can be found by clicking the Email Authentication icon in the Mail section of your cPanel.

DomainKeys ensures that messages are actually coming from the listed sender. This helps prevent things like “spoofing” where email appears to have come from your account when in fact it has not.

At the top of the page, if the DKIM Status shows Disabled, click the Enable button. This will turn the function on immediately.

SPF specifies which machines are authorized to send email from your domain(s). This means that only mail sent through the server hosting your account will appear as valid mail from your domain(s).

In the SPF section, halfway down the page, check the Status. If it says Disabled, click the Enable button. This will turn on SPF and show you a “raw SPF record” that will be used to help verify your email to other recipients. You do not need to adjust any of the Advanced Settings on the lower half of the page. Unlike DomainKeys, SPF records take two to four hours to go into effect. Until this happens, you will see a message on your account which reads, “SPF cannot be used because this server is not a DNS server for your domain.” This message will disappear when the SPF records are fully active.

As a note, SPF works only if your domain name is registered through HostPapa.

Related Articles

This post is also available in: FrançaisEspañolDeutsch
Get online with our affordable web hosting

Get online with our affordable web hosting

Learn more now
HostPapa Mustache