When an external user sends an email message to your account, Lookafter email server goes through several checking algorithms and assigns the email a junk rank based on the probability that the message is a junk mail.
If the email's junk rank exceeds your pre-defined Junk Filtering sensitivity level, it is classified as spam and will be delivered to the Junk folder.

Important emails can sometimes end up in your Junk folder due to various reasons:

• The subject line or body of the email contains spam trigger words. When an email is received, our system will perform an analysis on the email message to check for keywords, phrases, and patterns that are often used in spam emails. If an email contains any of these words or phrases, it's more likely to be flagged as spam.

• The email fails an authentication check. Lookafter mail server checks for email authentication using SPF (Sender Policy Framework) by verifying whether the sending mail server is authorized to send email on behalf of the domain listed in the email's “From” address. If the SPF check fails, the email will be marked as spam.

• The email is poorly formatted. The mail server also employs formatting checks on received emails. If the email is poorly formatted, or has a malformed format, it will be assigned with a higher junk rank.

• The sender's email address was marked as junk sender by your administrator. If your sender's email address has been added into the Global Email Rules as a junk mail by your voadmin or avomaster, emails coming from that sender will be automatically move to the Junk folder.

• The email content triggers a keyword in your Rules that filtered it to your Junk folder.

If you find that important emails are ending up in your spam folder, there are a few things you can do to prevent this:

Adding a sender to your address book can ensure that their emails land in your Inbox. Here's the guide to add a sender into your Address Book.

Please also ensure that the “Sender is in user's Contact list” option is selected on the Global Junk Mail Control or individual's Junk Filtering Setup.

If you have a sender that regularly communicates with your via email (e.g. your customer, vendor, supplier, partner), it is recommended to whitelist their domains or email addresses via Global Email Rules, so that their emails can always be received by your users in the Inbox.

Remember to remove any block or junk lines associated to the sender's domain or email address that will cause their emails to be rejected or marked as junk.

Please refer to The Global Email Rules Guide for more setup details.
*Note: You need to be a voadmin user or login as Avomaster to configure this setting.

An email is assigned with a junk rank based on the several checks as mention above (i.e. spam trigger content checks, SPF checks, format checks). If the rank exceeds your pre-defined Junk Filtering Sensitivity Level, the email will be marked as spam and delivered to the Junk folder.

To further explain with an example: assume that your Junk Filtering sensitivity level is set to 5.0. If a received email is assigned with junk rank 5.7, it will enter the Junk folder. If the email is assigned with junk rank 4.9, it will land in your Inbox.

While the default Junk Filtering sensitivity level is 5.0, you can adjust it based on your preference.
Please refer Junk Filtering Setup to configure your junk filtering settings or consult your Administrator for Global Junk Filtering Setup.

*Note that with lower sensitivity (higher number) being selected, you may receive more spam emails in your Inbox.

If you use Rules to filter emails, it is crucial to carefully select keywords for preventing legitimate emails from being incorrectly filtered into the junk folder. Keywords like “free,” “urgent,” and “money” are examples of words that are commonly found in both legitimate emails and spam mails. Using these words as sole keywords for filtering can result in false positives, where legitimate emails get mistakenly marked as spam.

Very short keywords should also be avoided in rules, especially if those keywords are commonly found in encoded or compressed attachments.

Enforcing SPF is crucial for preventing email spoofing and phishing. Many email service providers mark SPF-failed emails as spam, and some might even reject the email outright. Thus, we strongly advise senders to configure their domain’s SPF records correctly to ensure seamless email communication.