lib/PublicInbox/Filter/Base.pm     | 5 +++--
 lib/PublicInbox/Filter/RubyLang.pm | 4 ++--
 lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm    | 3 ++-

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/Base.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/Base.pm
index 5d070132a4101c78408018283eb8734247806974..638b627af5d4370221a07b1c167a5883f62d235d 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/Base.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/Base.pm
@@ -66,9 +66,10 @@
 sub err ($) { $_[0]->{err} }
 
 # by default, scrub is a no-op, see PublicInbox::Filter::Vger::scrub
-# for an example of the override
+# for an example of the override.  The $for_remove arg is set to
+# disable altid setting for spam removal.
 sub scrub {
-	my ($self, $mime) = @_;
+	my ($self, $mime, $for_remove) = @_;
 	$self->ACCEPT($mime);
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/RubyLang.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/RubyLang.pm
index cb69e38a68aa01891287edd8b53448e53cd36259..a43d67a9352e4ea6ab71aad954b3fe44933d55e3 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/RubyLang.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Filter/RubyLang.pm
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ 	$self;
 }
 
 sub scrub {
-	my ($self, $mime) = @_;
+	my ($self, $mime, $for_remove) = @_;
 	# no msg_iter here, that is only for read-only access
 	$mime->walk_parts(sub {
 		my ($part) = $_[0];
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ 			}
 		}
 	});
 	my $altid = $self->{-altid};
-	if ($altid) {
+	if ($altid && !$for_remove) {
 		my $hdr = $mime->header_obj;
 		my $mids = mids($hdr);
 		return $self->REJECT('Message-ID missing') unless (@$mids);
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm
index 7ee29da54ebd5cf27f16ba32b2654fed87831df8..10dc618416a377387652f1ebab198be4bb91f60b 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/WatchMaildir.pm
@@ -126,7 +126,8 @@ 		eval {
 			my $im = _importer_for($self, $ibx);
 			$im->remove($mime, 'spam');
 			if (my $scrub = $ibx->filter) {
-				my $scrubbed = $scrub->scrub($mime) or return;
+				my $scrubbed = $scrub->scrub($mime, 1);
+				$scrubbed or return;
 				$scrubbed == REJECT() and return;
 				$im->remove($scrubbed, 'spam');
 			}