Configuring the Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) v2 to exclude recipients from spam filtering

Microsoft has released an update to the Exchange 2003 Intelligent Message Filter v2 (yes, you MUST be running Exchange 2003 SP2) that allows the administrator to specify a list of aliases or SMTP Addresses for internal recipients; you can configure this an exclusive list (all recipients in the list must be in the message) or an inclusive list (any of the recipients can be in the message).

I thought this was a pretty commonly understood feature until I had to actually do a search for it the other day. The feature is well described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 912587: Exchange Server 2003 Intelligent Message Filter does not provide the functionality to exclude a particular recipient from anti-spam filtering.

The reason that I needed this feature is that I have a customer that receives multiple important e-mails every day from one source. All of these e-mails go to a single mailbox and are processed. For some reason, the IMF ranks these as an SCL 8 everytime, but they reject SCL 8 and 9 messages.

To get this functionality, you need to get the hotfix described in KB 912587, create the multi-string Registry values and enter the e-mail addresses. I have used the "inclusive" list feature and it works just fine.

We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. -- Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)