Enable and Configure the Spam Confidence Level Threshold

Enable and Configure the Spam Confidence Level Threshold

The spam confidence level (SCL) threshold is the value at which a particular message is identified as potential spam and is acted on. If you have enabled and configured all default anti-spam agents, the Content Filter agent is the last filter to scan incoming messages. Therefore, the settings of the SCL thresholds and threshold actions are very important. If you set the SCL thresholds too high, you may not reduce the spam that enters your organization. If you set the SCL thresholds too low, you risk filtering messages that come from legitimate users.

Note

After you configure the SCL thresholds, you should periodically monitor these settings and adjust them according to your organization's needs.

You configure the Content Filter agent to act on messages according to their SCL rating. For example, you may determine that messages that have an SCL rating of 7 or greater must be deleted, whereas messages that have an SCL rating of 6 are rejected, and messages that have an SCL of 5 are quarantined. You can configure the Content Filter agent to take the following actions when a message exceeds different SCL ratings:

• Deletes message
• Rejects message
• Quarantines message

You can adjust the SCL threshold behavior by assigning different SCL ratings to each of these actions. You can set each SCL threshold action to a value between 0 and 9, where 0 is considered less likely to be spam, and 9 is considered more likely to be spam.