In general, we recommend that you start off holding the messages Spam Protection identifies, and start bouncing messages once some statistics have been gathered for your account.
Holding your messages:
- Eliminates the possibility of losing real mail
- Makes recovering misidentified messages is as simple as clicking a link
- Is best for when you aren't sure if a condition is accurate for your mail, or when you first start using Spam Protection
Bouncing your messages:
- Tells the message sender that you have not, and will not, see their message
- Can get you removed from spammers' databases
- Is better if you do not check Discards regularly - legitimate correspondents will know you did not receive the message
- Is best for when you are reasonably confident that a condition will not catch your real mail
Additionally, many users find it convenient to set accurate conditions to bounce, so they can focus their attention on checking the results of less accurate conditions for false positives.
Remember, if you choose to bounce your mail, you can still whitelist addresses that are incorrectly caught by Spam Protection. However, if you choose to bounce your spam, we cannot retrieve a real message under any circumstances. Your correspondent will need to send the message again.