Message Rules

  • Thread starter Thread starter DPK
  • Start date Start date
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DPK

I have Windows XP Pro and am using Microsoft Outlook
Express for my e-mail. I set my "Message Rules" to
delete any mail which contains certain (offensive) words
in the subject line and message body, because I have been
swamped with porn and other spam, lately. I'm still
getting spam mail with these words in the message body,
though. I have no idea why I've been getting this crap,
because I don't visit this kind of arena on the
internet. Anyway, why doesn't Outlook Express snag these
before they reach my Inbox?
 
It ought to, didn't it?

A couple of tips: use a separate e-mail address for sending to sensitive
recipients - like newsgroups. That way your regular address won't come up
with the programs which trawl ng's to get e-mail addresses.

Anti-spam your e-mail address ( have a look at mine ) so that programs can't
pick it up but it's obvious to a 'real' person who may want to get in touch.

Unfortunately, once you're on spam lists it takes a long time to get off.

Good luck

Peter
 
Call your specific ISP and see if they have a filtering system set up and if
so adjust your rules to match words the insert to show it is spam.

My ISP will insert the line ****SPAM**** in the header to make it an easy
target for my rules.
 
Outlook Express doesn't 'snag' them simply because it is
only a basic version and therefore not designed to do it.
What you can do is use something like mailwasher -
unfortunately you can only use it with one email account.
First set mailwasher up and then run it. It will collect
all your emails from the specified account. All you need
do then is go down the list of emails, right click on any
you don't like and select 'blacklist' from the menu list.
Alternatively, if the email is from a friend, right click
and select 'friend' from the list. Finally press
the 'process mail' button and all the blacklisted mail
will be deleted or, if it has a genuine return address,
be bounced back to the sender. Mailwasher will then open
outlook express for you and only download the mail you
want. Obviously, you will always need to open mailwasher
first in order for it to obtain your mail. After you have
read your mail in Outlook Express close Outlook Express
down, otherwise any new porn mail etc will get through.
You can get a free copy of mailwasher from
www.mailwasher.net

Hope this helps

John Barnett - MVP
Associate Expert
 
John Barnett - MVP said:
Outlook Express doesn't 'snag' them simply because it is
only a basic version and therefore not designed to do it.
What you can do is use something like mailwasher -
unfortunately you can only use it with one email account.
First set mailwasher up and then run it. It will collect
all your emails from the specified account. All you need
do then is go down the list of emails, right click on any
you don't like and select 'blacklist' from the menu list.
Alternatively, if the email is from a friend, right click
and select 'friend' from the list. Finally press
the 'process mail' button and all the blacklisted mail
will be deleted or, if it has a genuine return address,
be bounced back to the sender. Mailwasher will then open
outlook express for you and only download the mail you
want. Obviously, you will always need to open mailwasher
first in order for it to obtain your mail. After you have
read your mail in Outlook Express close Outlook Express
down, otherwise any new porn mail etc will get through.
You can get a free copy of mailwasher from
www.mailwasher.net

Hope this helps

John Barnett - MVP
Associate Expert
Click to expand...

John:

How accurate do you feel MailWasher is in its attempts at bouncing messages
back to the true original spam sender? I always liked that feature but I've
been cautioned by several posters in various newsgroups about using the
"bounce" feature, in their belief that these bounces weren't really going
back to the original source at all, so that "bouncing" accomplished little
aside from causing unnecessary internet traffic.

Thanks,
Ian.
 
Hello,

Perhaps you are setting up your rules incorrectly. Give this a try:

Rule #1 (Friendly) -- you want to have this at the top of the list

- Where the "From" line contains people in your address book
- Stop processing more rules

Rule #2 (SPAM)

- Where the "TO or CC" line does *not* contain your e-mail address
OR
- Where the "Subject" line contains xxxx
OR
- Where the "Message" body contains xxxx
- Mark as read
- Delete
- Stop processing more rules

Selecting "Stop processing more rules" is important if you have more than one rule saved. If you don't use the option, and an e-mail is from one of your friends, then it will also be processed through rule #2. If your friend sent you a dirty joke (it's OK to get this from a friend!), then it might end up deleted because of rule #2.

Also, keep in mind that spammers will do practically anything to get the message to your inbox. Some will use graphics instead of text, others will alter the spelling of words or add spaces between the letters. In other words, you're not going to be able to stop all of it unless you set up a very strict rule where you will only accept e-mail from a specific list of addresses and absolutely nothing else.

Hope this helps,
 
John Barnett - MVP said:
John:

How accurate do you feel MailWasher is in its attempts at bouncing
messages back to the true original spam sender? I always liked that
feature but I've been cautioned by several posters in various
newsgroups about using the "bounce" feature, in their belief that these
bounces weren't really going back to the original source at all, so
that "bouncing" accomplished little aside from causing unnecessary
internet traffic.

Thanks,
Ian.
Click to expand...

I just blacklisted myself & it bounced back to me as "Returned mail: User
unknown."

Johnf
 
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