Outlook Rule - Filter SPAM by Display Name?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joel Elias
  • Start date Start date
J

Joel Elias

I am using Outlook 2007 and receive a lot of SPAM to my public e-mail
addresses. A common factor in much of the SPAM is that it has a fake
"Display Name" for the recipient (me) with a correct underlying e-mail
address. Is there a way to set up an Outlook rule to filter out messages
there the recipient's "Display Name" is not me? I have tried several
variations on the rules "Where my name is/is not in the To box", "With
specific words in the recipient's address." withour success.

Thanks in advance for help with this.

Joel
 
Thanks Diane,

The Outlook SPAM filter is very effective and is catching almost all of
these messages and moving them to the Junk E-Mail Folder. What I really want
to do is intercept them and delete them directly so that I don't have to
sort through the mass of them before emptying the Junk E-mail Folder every
day.

Joel
 
Joel,

This is a limitation of the Outlook rules. I'm not sure why Microsoft did
not fix this in Outlook 2007. I have a workaround that is not perfect but it
saves you from having to wade through all of the crap in your junk e-mail
folder.

Go to your Junk e-mail folder and click on View - Arrange By - Current View
- Customize Current View. Click on the Automatic Formatting button. Click on
Add to create a new formatting rule. Type in Spam for the Name. Click on the
Font button and change the font to 6 pt Tahoma (or some other font that is
small). Also check the Strikeout box under Effects and click OK. Click on the
Condition button and then on the Advanced tab. Click on the Field button -
Frequently Used Fields and select the From field. The Condition field should
be set to "contains". In the Value field, type in a word that the spammers
commonly have in the From field such as "debt", "cheaper", "google", etc,
etc. Repeat the process for each word.

The e-mails that match this criteria will have a small font and will have a
strike through line. It is then easier to spot the e-mails that may be from a
legit sender. If everything is working correctly and you are confident with
the formatting rule, you can change the font color to "white" which will
completely eliminate the e-mail from view.

Hope that helps. Good luck, Brian.
 
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