iCloud: Identifying and filtering spam

iCloud automatic spam filtering

To minimize spam, iCloud uses mechanisms such as trend analysis, dynamic lists, and content filtering to automatically detect and block spam before it reaches your Inbox. However, no strategy is 100% effective when it comes to managing spam, so some spam may still reach your Inbox. The information below may help you reduce the amount of spam you receive and correct any cases where a message is incorrectly marked as spam.

If you think a message may be spam, don't open it

Sometimes the seemingly innocent act of opening a questionable email can alert spammers that their message was received and opened at an active email account. This can encourage more spam. To avoid this, you can delete any messages that look like spam before viewing them. If spam becomes a problem, in Mac OS X Mail choose Preferences > Viewing (icon) and deselect "Display remote images in HTML messages," so spammers cannot use the email image loading feature to determine whether or not your email account is active.

Consider using an iCloud email alias

You can use an iCloud email alias to prevent spam from being sent to your primary iCloud email address. For example, you can use your iCloud Mail address for emailing friends and family, and use an email alias for online registrations, purchasing products, joining mailing lists, and so on. This makes it easier to monitor the sources of unwanted messages. See this article for more information about iCloud email aliases.

Reporting spam

Filtering spam at the server level is only part of the solution. You may find it helpful to use your mail application filtering to complement the server filtering by manually reporting messages as spam. You can do this by forwarding a message as an attachment to spam@me.com.

To learn more about managing spam, see iCloud: Why was I spammed?

Troubleshooting false-positives

Due to the complexity of accurately detecting and filtering out spam, on rare occasions a legitimate email from a friendly source may be blocked from reaching your Inbox. This is called a false-positive. If you feel that a legitimate email message was inadvertently filtered, you may want to ask your friend to send a follow up email to verify the issue exists before contacting support. If you notice that multiple email messages are being delayed, bounced, or not delivered, please contact iCloud Support directly.

Also make sure to check your Junk folder for email messages that were incorrectly marked as spam. To check your Junk folder from iCloud.com, choose the Mail application and click the Junk folder in the sidebar.

Note: Email messages in the Junk folder are automatically deleted after 30 days.