Spam is categorised at Posteo using a point system –, as is the case with other email providers. Our spam filter checks every incoming email against various criteria and awards points. The most important of these are the sending server and technical criteria. The content of an email is less important. If an email is awarded a high point score during this check, it will be classified as spam, and will not be accepted.

If the Posteo spam folder has been activated for the Posteo account, the email that has been classified as spam will automatically be moved into a spam folder. If the email receives a low point score, it will be accepted and delivered to the recipient.

What happens when an email is classified as spam?

If the filter classifies an email as spam, it will not arrive, and the sender will be immediately notified that it was not delivered.

Our spam filter is very effective and only incorrectly classifies an email as spam on extremely rare occasions. If this does occur, the sender is immediately notified (by their server) that our server did not accept the email. The sender can attempt to remedy the reasons for classification as spam or, alternatively, contact the recipient via a different method.

With this approach, we prevent emails from getting lost.

At Posteo, you can be informed in real-time via email about each email that has been classified as spam by activating our spam log.
If you activate the Posteo spam log, you will also be informed via email about each rejected email. The spam log records email senders with the time as well as the subject of spam email, if available, in real-time.

You can also activate our Posteo spam folder

. All emails that have been classified as spam will then be delivered to this folder.

Moreover, we have chosen to maintain our spam filter centrally. We decided on this approach because users often mark newsletters, notifications and advertising as spam, even though technically, they are not realspam.
. However, you also have the possibility toforward emails to us for training purposes. In addition to our central filter, you can set up your own sender filter for emails sent by undesirable senders.