Block Spam with SpamAssassin for DirectAdmin

115 March 31, 2021

SpamAssassin is a mail filter built into DirectAdmin that lets you control how incoming spam mail is tagged and handled. In this article, we’ll explain how to use SpamAssassin from the DirectAdmin control panel.

Accessing and Enabling SpamAssassin
  1. Log in to DirectAdmin.
  2. Navigate to the appropriate user account and select the domain from the drop-down at the top of the page.
  3. Under the E-Mail Management menu select SpamAssassin Setup.
  4. If SpamAssassin has not yet been set up, you will see “SpamAssassin is not currently enabled”. If so, click “Enable SpamAssassin” to enable it.
Filter Options

SpamAssassin allows you to choose where spam is sent and how easily mail gets flagged as spam. It also gives every incoming email a score from 0-50, where 0 is not spam, and 50 is definitely spam.

You can adjust these settings so that spam is scored and filtered according to your comfort level.

  • Where to send mail tagged as spam.  You can choose your inbox, a catch-all account, the spam folder, or delete.
  • Score threshold. We recommend a setting between 0 and 10. A lower threshold will block more mail. However, it can also potentially flag legitimate mail as spam.
  • Deleting high scoring spam. You can use this to automatically delete mail with a high spam score.
  • Rewrite the subject of a spam email. This makes it easier to identify and avoid opening spam mail.
  • How should the spam be delivered. Generally, we recommend using attachments or text-only attachments for better security.

After modifying your SpamAssassin settings, scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save” to save your settings.

Blacklisting/Whitelisting Email Addresses

Blacklisting an email address automatically tags all email from that address as spam. Whitelisting an address will always allow mail from that address, even if it has a high spam score.

  1. Enter the email address in the corresponding blacklist or whitelist field.
  2. Click “+ Add” to add it to the blacklist or whitelist.
  3. You can create wildcard entries using the ‘*’ symbol. For instance, adding *@spammail.com will apply to every email address with that domain.