Hack 48. Use Gmail as a Spam-Catcher | Blackberry Hacks: Tips & Tools for Your Mobile Office

You started adding forwarding mail to your BlackBerry's email address, and now all those spam messages you were getting are going to your BlackBerry. Keep your BlackBerry from turning into a vibrating advertisement platform for pornographers and discount medications.

Some of us have superfancy spam filters based on Spam Assassin, TMDA, and other content filters. We forward copies of all scrubbed email to our BlackBerry address, or we let the BWC or BIS pull the mail from our mail server. This cuts down dramatically on spam and even viruses, Trojans, and other crud that you don't need to see.

Other users don't have server-side filtering and instead rely on client-side or desktop-based methods to scrub and sanitize email. The most common among these are the Flag as Spam filters in Mozilla Thunderbird and other email clients. So while you're filtering your exposure to spam at your local workstation, you're still pulling it down and letting your software decide the spammy-ness of email and acting on it there. This also means that the spam and such stay on the server for delivery to your BlackBerry.

You can roll your own spam filter of sorts using a Google Gmail account. By making Gmail your final destination for emails, and forwarding all your other accounts there, you can set Gmail to trap the spam and send only messages you want onto your BlackBerry address for delivery.

You don't even have to tell anyone you use Gmail, and you can continue using your contaminated primary email address just like you always did, but now you have a huge 2 GB+ archive of all email sent to your BlackBerry (sure beats the 10 to 20 MB T-Mobile USA gives BlackBerry users on the BIS/BWC), allowing for a complete archive of all emails ever received. There are a variety of ways to check your Gmail [Hack #29], and there's nothing that says you have to put your Gmail account as the From: line in the BlackBerry. Instead, configure BIS/BWC to use your primary email address as the From: address, configure your primary email server to forward everything to your Gmail account, and then configure BIS or BWC to retrieve all your mail from Gmail via POP3 (or simply configure Gmail to forward all your email to your BlackBerry's email address, such as username@tmo.blackberry.net). Once you've done this, get ready to enjoy the sweet sound of spammers hitting the bit bucket!

4.13.1. Hack the Hack

To make this even more elegant, you can use the filters in Gmail to streamline operations. I like to keep an archive on Gmail, so I forward the email and cache a copy locally.

Log into Gmail and click Create a Filter.
Specify "in:inbox" for the Has the Words criteria, and click Next Step. Ignore the error message that pops up.
Check the box labeled Skip the Inbox (Archive It).
Specify your BlackBerry email address under Forward it To:.
Click Create Filter.

If you need to, you can also create a filter that saves you from seeing messages that you yourself send:

Log into Gmail and click Create a Filter.
Specify your BlackBerry's From: email address for the From criteria, and click Next Step.
Check the box labeled Skip the Inbox (Archive It).
Specify Apply the Label: Sent From BlackBerry (or whichever label you choose).
Click Create Filter.

This will keep messages you've authored on your BlackBerry from being sent to you (you already have a copy on your BlackBerry for your reference).

By making Gmail your filtering, archiving, all-purpose deluxe mailbox, you don't have to sift through spam emails all day on your BlackBerry. You can enjoy the benefits of having Google's technology for indexing and searching all of your email without having to switch to using it full time.

R. Emory Lundberg