“Of Mice and Megabytes Supplement”

HOW TO CREATE A RULE IN OUTLOOK EXPRESS
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Here’s a “how-to” for creating a rule to weed out potential spam from “real” e-mails. A rule is a feature that automatically acts upon incoming messages. The following is written for Outlook Express (OE) but its general approach is applicable to other e-mail readers.

CREATE A NEW FOLDER
In OE, click File|New|Folder. Click on “Local Folders,” then type a folder name, i.e., “Probably Spam.”

CREATE THE RULE

1. Click Tools|Message rules|Mail. Click the tab marked “Mail Rules,” then the “New” button on the right.
2. In the top window, click the box (thereby placing an “X”) next to “Where the message body contains specific words.”
3. In the second window, click the box next to “Move it to the specified folder.”
4. In the third window, click the underlined link “contains specific words.” Here’s where you set the condition for detecting possible spam based on a word or phrase found in the message body. For this example, type “refinance now,” (without the quotes) then click the “Add” button. Add any other words you have in mind, then click OK when finished.
5. In the same third window, click on the link “specified,” then click on the newly-created folder “Probably Spam.” Click OK.
6. In the fourth window, name the rule “Spam filter.”
7. Click OK.

With this rule, OE scans incoming messages for words you’ve entered in step #4. If found, the suspect e-mails are sent to the Probably Spam folder, not your Inbox. This filter won’t work on messages consisting of graphic images accompanied by “garbage text.” To be effective, rules work only for recurring words such as “Offered by Optin Deals” or “refinance.” If undesirable messages reach your Inbox, search them for unique words that’ll help flag them as spam then add them to your rule’s conditions. To edit or modify a rule, follow step #1, click once on the rule, then click the Modify button.

Before deleting messages in the Probably Spam folder willy-nilly, check for “false-positives,” messages flagged as unwanted but not (such as a joke containing the word penis sent by a friend).

From spam I’ve received, here’s a list words/phrases that you can use to initially populate your rule: penis, viagara, viagra, prescribed online, hgh, optindeals, secret values, cool values, gift-offers.com, exclusive-deals, premier specials, debt consolidation, one of our online affiliates, utopiad, mytotalemail.com, dollar savers, jazzy deals, and offer mania.

Naturally, if you want to receive information about HGH or Viagra, don’t enter these terms. OE’s rules provide a weak alternative to a real spam killer program, but this provides a good starting point.

Re-printed from the Rafu Shimpo, August 2003. Copyright©2003 Rafu Shimpo. All rights reserved.

ADDENDUM
If you want to get really fancy, you can combine trigger words found in the Subject line with this filter. Just add a second check in the box next to “Where the Subject line contains specific words” in step #2. Be sure, however, that you change the linked word “and” to “or” found in the window in step #5.

This spam rule can also be applied for different purposes. You can create a rule defining messages received from ben-jo@yahoo.com to be automatically forwarded, deleted, marked as read, or other actions available through the “Select the Actions for your rule” window.