Spam Filter, Outlook, and SMTP

[tucansam]

I'm trying to figure something out.

Spam Filter uses SMTP.

My email client (Outlook in this case) uses POP3 to connect to my provider to receive emails. Untangle does not scan POP3.

My email client uses SMTP to connect to my provider to send emails. Untangle scans SMTP.

So when I download email from my provider, no spam scanning is taking place.

Right?

So unless my email client gets hacked, and someone starts sending spam from it, Untangle's Spam Scanner is not useful to me in any meaningful way.

Or am I misunderstanding how the software works?

[sky-knight]

Spam Filter works in one place and one place only...

Inspecting the SMTP conversation as it's happening on the way into your email server.

So no, it will not work in your circumstance, and yes you're misunderstanding how it works.

Also, your mail client should be using encrypted SMTP, which Untangle doesn't do anything with.

Compromised email clients are handed by the email service, if you don't control that service... well it's not up to you!