Kansas University’s thousands of computer users now have a new tool to help them manage the flood of junk e-mails, or spam, coming into their mail acccounts.

A spam filter has been installed on KU’s e-mail accounts, said Jerree Catlin, associate director of KU’s Academic Computing Services.

The filter, installed by KU Information Services, is designed to evaluate incoming e-mails and lable suspicious messages messages with a “SpamScore” in the subject header to help computer users manage their messages.

Catlin said the filter does not automatically delete messages.

“We didn’t want the filter to accidentally delete legitimate e-mails, such as from subscribed e-mail lists. This tagging method flags suspicious e-mails but leaves control to delete in the hands of our users,” Catlin said.

Each message’s SpamScore will be indicated by the phrase [Spam: SpamScore]. The more asterisks a header contains, the higher the probability that a message is spam.

Details about the spam filter and instructions for creating autofiltering rules in different e-mail programs can be found at www.ku.edu/acs/email/spam.

Faculty and staff with questions should contact their department technical support staff or call (785) 864-0200.