Spam Control

From WHMCS Documentation

Spam can become a big problem. WHMCS comes with spam control filters to reduce the amount of spam you receive. The spam control features will allow you to block email address and keywords or phrases that appear in either the message subject or body. which pipe into the ticket system from email.

You can access this feature at Configuration () > System Settings > Spam Control or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > Support > Spam Control.

  • Messages that you receive via the contact or submit ticket pages are not subject to these spam controls. For those, we recommend using reCaptcha.
  • You can also block an email address from opening tickets by clicking Block Sender while viewing a ticket from the email that you want to block.

Blocking Keywords or Phrases

To set up keywords or phrases that will prevent the email from opening a ticket, enter the words or phrases and choose where the system looks for them (either the subject or body of the message). If, for example, the system finds those words or phrases in the email subject or if the blocked phrase is in the email body, WHMCS will not open the ticket.

This feature is not case-sensitive.

Further Protection

Apache SpamAssassin™

Outside of WHMCS, you can combat the number of spam emails you are receiving by enabling Apache SpamAssassin. This tool can detect most spam using its rule-based system and worldwide database of spam messages.

If you have configured your anti-spam system to add a prefix to the email's subject, you can use the Spam Control feature to block those emails.

To do this:

  1. Set Type to Subject.
  2. Enter the text that your anti-spam system adds. For example, if it adds **SPAM** to the subject, enter that text as the value.
  3. Click Add New Spam Control.

The system will now block imports of any email containing the text in the subject.

Obscure Addresses

If you use common email addresses (especially hosting companies) like support@ or contact@, you will receive more spam. This is due to spammers blindly emailing these addresses on several domains. If you use less-common addresses, it may reduce your level of incoming spam.

For example:

helpme@yourdomain
support-team@yourdomain
assistance@yourdomain