The Problem in a Nutshell
You received a message (sample) that suspected spam has been quarantined.
You followed the link to the quarantine Web page. You dealt with good messages by delivering or white listing. Then you deleted the spam. The spam didn't go away.
The Solution
The email message with the summary is static, i.e. it doesn't change when you empty the quarantine.
After you clean the quarantine Web page, go back to your email and delete the summary.
There is another possible issue. Scroll to the bottom or click here to jump.
Details
Think of the email summary as a snapshot.
It's a picture of your quarantine at one point in time. If more spam is stopped or if you go into the quarantine and deal with the messages, the email snapshot cannot change.
The Web page for your quarantine is active, however, and it changes as you deal with the messages. If you delete one or more messages, the page will refresh and the list will be shorter. If you white list or deliver messages, the Web page will refresh again.
As you delete and deliver from the quarantine, the email message remains unchanged. It may look like the Web page, but it's just a static email message. You may delete it after you deal with the quarantine.
Other Causes of Confusion
It's Monday. Your inbox contains a spam summary from Friday. You go into the quarantine and deal with each message in the appropriate way. Then you delete the Friday summary and go back to reading from the email inbox.
Now you find a summary from Saturday and it shows another list. No - It's not another list. It's the same list with any spam that arrived later Friday and early Saturday. Remember, it's Monday and you just cleaned your quarantine. This Saturday summary is now irrelevant. You emptied the quarantine. None of these exist. Delete the summary email from Saturday.
Back to the inbox. Soon you find a summary from Sunday. You've got it - delete it. You've already cleaned the quarantine so these messages no longer exist in quarantine. The same applies to a fresh summary that arrived about 7:30 am Monday.
Tuesday morning , about 7:30 am, you will receive a fresh summary. This is a new snapshot taken early Tuesday morning but only if you received new spam. If you have no new spam, you are lucky and no summary is sent. This is current information since it was generated after you cleaned the quarantine, but as soon as you clean it again, this message will be outdated.
This example uses a weekend time period. The same applies if you don't check email on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday you might have summaries from Tuesday, Wednesday, and early Thursday morning. Once you enter the quarantine and deal with your messages, these all become outdated.
If you don't keep up with the spam firewall quarantine, you can build up dozens, if not hundreds of quarantined messages. They can fill multiple quarantine Web pages. If you delete a screen of entries and there is still a list after the page refreshes, it may be that you simply have to keep going until all the pages of quarantine listings are gone. Just keep reviewing and deleting until you have an empty list.
This page is maintained by Brien G. Muller, IT Help Desk
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY