Email filtering - weird behaviour?

[escotia]

I am having an issue where low spam score emails are being filtered when below the Spam Threshold in SpamAssassin.

Specifically, my test email has a spam score of 3.9, but I see it filtered with a threshold of 6.
This email seems to just disappear after being filtered too - it doesn't get to the email's spam folder.
I have Spam Box on - I had expected it to deliver to spam folder, but I perhaps misunderstand it.

Anyway I deleted all global filters.
I added 1 local filter for the specific account I'm looking at, to send spam with score 7+ to the spam folder.

Now when I send the test email, it appears in the spam folder.
So it appears that the local filter that should require score 7+ is filtering an email with a score of 3.9

I note this post seems to suggest a similar experience but it has no answer: Some incoming messages listed as "filtered" with negative spam score

Can anyone explain what I'm seeing?
Thanks in advance!

 

[cPRex]

Hey there! Do you have root access to the server? If so, you'll want to check the Exim log (/var/log/exim_mainlog) as that will show the filtering and the score being applied to the message. That is likely the best way to get information about why this is behaving the way it is.

If you don't have root access to the server and only have access to your cPanel account, you'll need to reach out to your hosting provider to have them do some more testing with the system.

 

[escotia]

Thanks for your response!

Unfortunately I don't have root access.
I have been liaising with hosting support, but I don't know if there's a language barrier?
They mostly ignored my filter queries. Their last response was full of technical jargon that I didn't really understand tbh.
But *I think* they asked me to check if Microsoft had configured the outgoing Hotmail email servers correctly and if not, to fix them, and then try again. /

BUT, meanwhile I've been testing to find the threshold value for my local spam filters.
I have one filter which requires a spam score above X to send to spam folder.
I have a second filter which requires a spam score not above X to send to inbox.
One of these should always succeed, so the threshold value here is the minimum value X where my test emails are sent to inbox and not spam folder.

I have two test emails.
#1 has a spam score of 3.9, as reported in the 'Track Delivery' log,
The filter threshold value for this email is 39.

#2 has a spam score of 4.8, as reported in the 'Track Delivery' log,
The filter threshold value for this email is 48.

Clearly, the threshold value appears to be the spam score without the period.
Is this a general rule that I have simply not understood?

Thanks again!

 

[cPRex]

That doesn't sound normal to me. Unfortunately you'll have to work with the host and get them to investigate why that is happening.